Mysteries Unknown
by giantzacface
Summary: After a horrible car accident Sharpay is left with a bout of amnesia. She doesn't remember who she is let alone why all sorts of life threatening situations happen around her. Will she figure out what happened in her past or will she die trying? Troypay
1. Prologue

**Hey everybody. Just a short note here. Have any of you seen **_**Samantha Who?**_** the new ABC television show (if not, its online, so you should check it out). I don't see it lasting much longer than a season but I think it's really cute. Anyways, I thought that would be an interesting concept to apply here. Sharpay gets into a horrible car accident and ends up with amnesia. She doesn't remember who she is, let alone the fact that she was the schools Ice-Queen. Will she again fall into her preexisting role, or will she forge a new social position for herself?**

* * *

Mysteries Unknown

Prologue

Troy sat in his car exasperatedly drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. "Every day," he sighed. Every weekday at 2:30 in the afternoon, two hundred East High students could be found attempting to be the first to leave the school parking lot. It never seems to occur to them that the role of first out is severely limited. Troy sighed again and turned his music up.

Twenty minutes and half a _Radiohead_ album later he finally reached the parking lot entrance. Excitedly, he turned his right blinker on and proceeded to turn onto the main road. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he saw a blur of pink and heard the distinct sound of screeching wheels. Before he even had a chance to process the situation, there was a deafening crunch and he was thrust forward into his now inflated airbags. It all happened so quickly and yet he felt it would never end.

Troy just sat there for a moment smelling the burnt rubber now smearing the ground and telling his heart to beat at a normal pace. "Holy Shit," he said, more so to fill the subsequent silence than anything else. He felt something drip and realized that his nose was bleeding. After a quick assessment, he came to the conclusion that, other than some nasty bruises and a couple welts from the seatbelt, he was virtually unharmed.

Shaking and angry, it finally hit him, 'Some moron just ran into me'. Fuming, he got out of his car to exchange information and, more importantly, give this idiot a piece of his mind. But what he saw next stopped him dead in his tracks.

The pink convertible belonged to Sharpay Evans. 'I should have known" was his fleeting thought before going over to inspect more closely. The front end of the car was crushed accordion style with the hood sticking up far enough to block Troy's view inside the car. The windshield had shattered, leaving broken glass everywhere, both inside and out of the car. Nobody had emerged yet. In fact, Troy couldn't sense any movement from within the car at all. He walked over to the driver's side door and froze. Sharpay was covered in blood, hair a mess and body sprawled over the passenger seat. Troy couldn't tell if she was breathing but he was too afraid to look, dreading the worst. Instead, he just stood there, unaware of the circle of students that had begun to collect, daring to speak only in hushed voices. One of those students must have called an ambulance because before Troy could even force a more positive thought through his brain there was an onslaught of Police, Firefighters and EMT.

At some point, Gabriella arrived on the scene and attached herself to the still silent Troy's side for support as they watched the Firefighters expertly peal the totaled car from around Sharpay's body. But Troy hardly noticed his girlfriend's presence. He just kept hearing the awful crunch of impact and feeling an overwhelming sense of regret for any bad thought he'd ever had about Sharpay.

Finally, Sharpay was loaded into an awaiting ambulance and it sped off, siren blaring. At that point, an EMT worker approached Troy and convinced him to go to the hospital to get examined for any internal injuries. Troy knew he was fine but he complied because he didn't want Sharpay to be in the hospital alone. Later, a doctor informed Troy that Sharpay "is still breathing", but it didn't provide much comfort when Troy saw all the medical equipment needed to accompany that statement.

Troy's examination was short. Just like he thought, a little banged up but nothing critical. Sharpay, on the other hand, was not nearly as lucky. The doctor explained it was because she experienced the collision head-on. Troy didn't care about the reasoning, he just knew that he and one of his classmates, albeit the "ice-queen", had been in the same accident, but she hadn't woken up from it.

The next few weeks would find Troy spending all his spare time in Sharpay's Hospital room. His friends would rotate in, each trying to convince him of his innocence – "You didn't cause the accident. She did." – but nothing could change his convictions. At one point even Ryan told Troy he needn't stay but Troy could tell his presence took away from some of Ryan's own guilt and pain. And so, the next three weeks passed in a haze of beeping machinery, harsh lighting and few spoken words correlating to a newly forged bond.

**

* * *

The rest of this story is actually going to be very light hearted. I just wanted to juxtapose a very seriously toned prologue to the rest of the story to explain the annoying sense of attachment that Troy is going to be plagued with.**

**Yes, this is my first story, so we'll just see how it goes. But, if you read it, please drop me a word. It will do wonders for my self esteem, I expect. **


	2. Hey Hat Boy

**I forgot to do this last time but – **

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but the dialogue**

* * *

Hey Hat Boy

Once again, Troy found himself in the Lovelace Medical Center parking lot. He'd never been a huge fan of hospitals but within weeks he'd grown to loath this building with such strength, it was beginning to scare him. Or was that sense of loathing misdirected from the task currently ahead of him? He was beginning to feel as though spending time with Sharpay was more of an obligation and less of an expression of his remorse. At that thought, his increasingly recurrent sense of guilt set in, forcing him to push the notion aside. _'It's just the building I loath'_ he assured himself.

When it had dawned on both he and Ryan that Sharpay was not waking up any time soon, they developed a rotational visiting schedule. The purpose of this schedule was so that (a) Sharpay would never be alone and (b) the boys could still live their lives. It is basketball season, after all. The schedule was agreed upon as follows:

6:00 AM – 3:00 PM Mrs. Evans

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM Ryan Evans

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Troy Bolton

9:00 PM – 6:00 AM Mr. Evans

Mrs. Evans was assigned school hours, because the boys are obviously unavailable. Ryan took the hours directly after school so that Troy could attend basketball practices. Unfortunately, this left Troy with the evening hours. And finally, because he had to be on Beijing time for business anyway, Mr. Evans volunteered to take the night shift.

On his way to Sharpays room, Troy was sure to grab a cup of coffee from the nurses station ("Don't think I forgot about those chocolate brownies you promised me, Carla"). This was bound to be a long evening.

"Hey Ryan," Troy greeted as he walked through the door, blowing on the steaming coffee in a lame attempt to cool the burning hot liquid. Troy glanced over at Sharpay and felt a pang of bitterness which he hastened to quell. He hated being stuck in this hospital room so much.

"Hey man," Ryan replied, standing up and stretching his arms high above his head. "This just gets harder every day, huh?" he said, misinterpreting the resentful look on Troy's face for grief.

"Sure does," Troy responded honestly as he replaced Ryan in the plastic hospital chair.

"Well, I have to get going. You know, homework and such," Ryan said in an attempt to lighten the dark atmosphere that seemed to have settled in the room. Before he opened the door to leave, he gave Sharpay one last look and sighed. Troy followed his gaze, unable to look away even after the door clicked shut. _'Why won't you just wake up?'_

Troy sat there for a long time with only his thoughts to occupy him. When he had first committed to spending his evenings with Sharpay, he'd still been feeling as though it was his duty. He'd also thought Sharpay would wake within the week. _'Wrong on both accounts'_ he thought. His sense of attachment had swiftly dissipated, leaving him with overwhelming resentment. Three weeks past excruciatingly slowly and Sharpay had yet to stir. That was just damn annoying.

Troy looked through the glass divider and saw that nurse Amber just arrived. Returning his eyes to Sharpay, he reasoned with himself _'She won't care if I step out for a little bit'_. It took a couple more minutes for him to almost convince himself that this sort of rationalization wasn't completely immoral. Still fighting with himself, he looked up to see Amber give Troy a small smile. Ah, the argument that tipped the scale. Returning the smile, Troy stood up and started to walk towards the door when –

"Ugh, what is this?" an angry and slightly hoarse voice demanded.

With this Troy's mind flashed through a series of emotions with abrupt rapidity. His thoughts went something like this:

Damn, I was so close

Did Sharpay say that?

Seriously, what are the odds that I'd be on duty when she woke?

Nurse Amber is pretty

Stop it Troy! You have a girlfriend

Hold up. Did _Sharpay_ say that?!

Troy turned around and saw what had only been visible in his mind's eye for the past three weeks – his release from this hell! Ok, maybe that isn't fair. It was more like his liberation represented in human form! Wait, stop it, he saw, quite literally, a frail Sharpay, finally conscious.

"Do they get to pay you less because you're mute? I asked you a question! What is this?"

"Huh? I don't work here. And what's what?" Troy realized he sounded like an idiot, but his mind wasn't working fast enough for him to fix that problem.

"The meaning of life," she barked out sarcastically, "what do you think I mean? Where am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? But first, who are you and why are you bothering me?"

"Wow, three weeks of beauty sleep didn't do much for you, did it? You were in a car accident, you are in the hospital and what do you mean who am I?"

But before Sharpay could respond with what was sure to be a witty and biting counter attack, Ryan breezed into the room. "Sometimes I don't know where my head is," he said, much cheerier than Troy last saw him. "I drove all the way home before I remembered that I left my hat here and holy mother of mercy, you're awake," He finished, facing Sharpay. The keys in his hand fell to the floor but he didn't seem to notice. He just stared at his twin expectantly.

Sharpay returned the look. Troy looked back and forth between the two, waiting for someone to say something. But neither did. A few more seconds passed with Troy feeling increasingly awkward. He couldn't take it anymore, he cleared his throat in an attempt to break the oppressive silence, but all that resulted was a strangled noise coming out of him and all four eyes of the Evans twins now focused on him. Ryan sent a pleading look his way, obviously aware of the discomfort permeating the room. Sharpay, on the other hand, fixed him with a wide-eyed, almost frightened expression. An expression that Troy had never seen on the Ice-Queen before. It was unsettling.

The silence continued. _'just say something, Troy. Anything. Just get those looks off of you!'_ he told himself.

"So, uh, Sharpay! She...uh...well, she's awake" he said brightly. _'Good job there captain obvious'_

But it actually seemed to do the trick. Ryan started to laugh. He looked back at Sharpay and continued to laugh even harder. Sharpay gave him an amused look but didn't join in. In fact, unless Troy was mistaken, she didn't look like she understood the joke. Of course, he wasn't quite sure what Ryan found so funny, either.

It wasn't until Ryan's laughter died down that Sharpay attempted to speak in front of him for the first time.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to put a damper on the festivities here, but can you two tell me who you are before we continue?"

Ryan's jubilant smile instantly fell from his face. He and Troy exchanged incredulous glances and then he motioned for Troy to follow him into the hallway. They left without ever giving Sharpay her answer.

* * *

Scene: The hallway just outside of Sharpay's hospital room. Sharpay is visibly screaming for somebody's attention but the boys don't seem to notice. 

Doctor: It appears as though Sharpay has developed amnesia. This is not rare when it comes to head injuries.

Ryan: Amnesia? As in she doesn't remember anything? Anything at all?

Sharpay: EXCUSE ME??

Troy: Yes, that is the definition of Amnesia, genius.

Ryan: Shut it.

Sharpay: WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING MY QUESTIONS?!?!

Doctor: She will remember some things simply through instinct. For example, she can still control her bodily functions –

Ryan: Thank God

Doctor: – and she remembers how to speak –

Troy: Obviously

Doctor: – It is more difficult for us to predict the exact extent of her loss, but it will be safe to assume that all memories have been erased.

Troy: Almost like that movie, _Eternal sunshi_ –

Ryan: Is there anything we can do to recover her memory?

Doctor: The only thing I can suggest is immersion back into her normal daily routine. This will provide her with everyday stimulants that will hopefully be familiar to her. You can also try showing her some photos or listening to songs that would elicit a strong emotional response had she her memory.

Sharpay: HEY, HAT BOY, GET BACK IN HERE!

Ryan: Strong emotions, you say? I think she's had a couple of those in her day.

Troy snorts with laughter.

* * *

"Alright Sharpy, its time," Mrs. Evans said lovingly. Ryan rolled his eyes. His mother, always the actress. Ryan can't even remember the last time his mother expressed a loving tone in her voice while addressing the children. 

Sharpay smiled up at the woman, _'What a loving woman'_ she thought.

Troy was also with the family. He had spent so much time in the Hospital; he figured one more farewell visit wouldn't hurt. Plus, he wanted to get Nurse Amber's phone number before he left. You know, just in case.

Sharpay's dad grabbed the box full of items that had accumulated over the weeks and they all headed out. Ryan and Troy had spent some time with Sharpay the previous night to explain as much about her life as they could. It wasn't until they started the task that they realized just how daunting it was. Sharpay dutifully took notes, but seventeen years contains a lot of information.

They stepped through the final set of doors, reaching the cool evening air. Everyone headed forward except for Sharpay. She remained fixed just outside the Hospital doors watching the others walk away.

Troy was the only one who noticed that she had stopped. He walked back and stood next to her, shoulder to shoulder. They both silently looked at the parking lot and the vast landscape beyond it.

"I don't even know which car is ours," Sharpay said softly.

"Oh, that's easy. Just look for the biggest, most expensive car," he replied, speaking a degree too loudly.

Sharpay didn't respond.

Troy sighed and said "Don't worry, Sharpay. It'll all come back soon."

Again she didn't respond. The rest of the Evans had reached the car and were now watching Troy and Sharpay curiously. Not wanting to hold up the family any longer, Troy started to take a step towards them.

"Troy?"

He turned around one more time to see a vulnerable Sharpay with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you yesterday. I was just – " but she choked up before she could finish the sentence.

Troy stared into her eyes. "I know" he whispered giving her a reassuring smile.

Sharpay smiled back and took his hand, finally ready to move forward.

**

* * *

Wouldn't it be great if I could keep posting at this pace? Haha, I wish I had that kind of stamina. But I figured I better get the first chapter up soon so that a) the real story can begin and b) readers can get a taste of the actual tone of my piece. Although, I ended this a little more melancholic than I had intended. Its amazing where these character take you when you let them. But if that doesn't work for you, let me know! Also, if you think I'm being too descriptive I can thin it out because I had definitely planned on so much more happening and the next thing I know its five pages later.**

**I'd also like to thank EVERYBODY who reviewed. The one good thing about being a new writer is that I don't have high expectations. So when I got reviews it was pretty much amazing :) please keep it up!**


	3. Three Strikes

**Well, this is finals week (which is probably why I spent so much time writing this chapter) so I can't promise anything coming out in the immediate future. Expect it next weekend and if I get one out sooner, it'll be like a wonderful surprise :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical or its characters. And I don't own the 'lost in the closet' joke. A variation of that one belongs to **_**Frasier**_

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Three Strikes

Three day's after Sharpay's release, Troy found himself lying on his back in his bedroom, trying to circumvent his intense boredom by bouncing his basketball off of the wall. "If you don't stop that within the next three seconds, you're going to be doing your dads yard work for the rest of the month," he heard his mother warn through the closed door. Troy bounced the ball one more time before setting it aside and responding with a "Sorry". After almost a month of three hour daily commitments to Sharpay, Troy felt as though he'd lost the ability to entertain himself. Rolling onto his stomach, he reached for his history book. _'Getting ahead is never a bad thing'_ he told himself.

Ten minutes later, a yawning Troy heard his phone ringing from somewhere within his pile of dirty clothes sitting in the corner of his room. Excitedly, he jumped up and dug for the phone but was immediately disappointed when he saw Ryan's name on the screen. He'd been hoping Gabriella would finish decathlon practice early today. Figuring Ryan was better than nobody, he adopted a cheery tone and answered on the last ring.

* * *

'Hey man, thanks again for coming. I hadn't anticipated this being so difficult," Ryan said as he led Troy into their enormous house.

"Oh, it's no problem, really," Troy assured him, though not completely convinced of the truth of that statement. "So, where is Sharpay anyway?" but before Ryan could answer the tune to _Humuhumunukunuku_ filled the air. "Sorry," Ryan excused himself as he pulled out his phone, "Hello?"

Troy took this opportunity to check out their house. It really was impressive, although a little too white for his liking. He didn't want to touch anything for fear of soiling it. Troy examined some professionally done family portraits that were hanging on the wall as he listened to Ryan finish his conversation.

"Ok, honey. Calm down, I promise you can get through this," he said into the receiver reassuringly. "Now, take a left, two rights and another left," he paused to listen to the other end and nodded his agreement with whatever was being stated. "All right, good. See you soon, sis."

"Sharpay lost?" Troy asked wondering why Ryan even let her out on her own. "Yeah, she wandered into her closet again. I had to talk her back to her bedroom."

* * *

"Please tell me this won't be too boring," Sharpay whined as Ryan shoved the video tape into the VCR.

"But you love musicals," Ryan reminded her.

"But you hate this one," Troy muttered.

Sharpay gave Troy a curious look before turning to Ryan and chirping "Ok, but I get to control the popcorn distribution!" Ryan raised his eyebrows but said nothing on his thoughts of the subject. He simply agreed to her demands and handed her the large Tupperware bowl full of buttered popcorn.

The three teens assumed their positions on the couch, facing the television. Sharpay was in the middle sitting cross-legged, furiously eating the popcorn that she had placed in her lap. Ryan, sitting on her left, was spending more time watching her reactions than the tape. And Troy was on her other side, squished as far from Sharpay as was physically possible, while still technically sitting on the couch.

As the tape ran out, leaving the screen blank, Sharpay set the empty popcorn bowl onto the floor and turned her attention to Ryan. She gave him a questioning look, indicating that he had to lead the reactionary conversation. He cleared his throat, "Well? _Twinkle Towne_. Your thoughts?" he asked cautiously.

With that she turned a furious glare to Troy who immediately jumped up and took three enormous steps backwards. "You didn't tell me you could sing!" she exclaimed. "I, um, well...we never really discussed, ah, well ...yeah, I do." He stammered, unsure of what answer Sharpay was looking for. Brightening, Sharpay jumped up and ran over to Troy, giving him a big hug, from which he recoiled out of instinct. "You were incredible," she gushed, still embracing him. "And did you guys see the girl who played Minnie?"

"Gabriella?" Troy asked, taken aback. "Well yeah, of course we saw her. She goes to school with us."

"What about her?" Ryan asked hoping an insult would be following, not for Gabriella's sake, but because that insult would indicate Sharpay's recollection of the girl. "Well, she had the most beautiful hair I've ever seen. I mean, obviously I haven't seen much hair in the past couple days, but hers was absolutely gorgeous." She went on but Ryan stopped listening as he slumped back into the couch.

At first Troy was thrilled to hear somebody, and Sharpay more specifically, compliment his girlfriend, but then he saw Ryan's reaction and realization dawned on him.

"Sharpay?" he asked, interrupting her monologue on the qualities of hair, "You don't remember this, do you?"

Stunned into silence, Sharpay gave Troy a stricken, wide-eyed stare and slowly shook her head no.

* * *

"Ok, Shar. Maybe _Twinkle Towne_ was a bust but I've tried to block that memory, myself. Perhaps it's a good sign that you can't recollect it. Instead, I'm going to take you to your absolute favorite place. It happens to be the happiest place on Earth." Ryan said explaining his plan to Sharpay as they both got into his sleek, black BMW. Sharpay's eyes lit up and she excitedly cried out, "We're going to Disney World?"

Ryan gave her a disgusted look and replied "Of course not. We're going to the hair salon!" He said the last part with the same amount of fervor that Sharpay had demonstrated with her guess.

"Oh, ok." Luckily, Sharpay was too curious to feel any disappointment.

"Your roots are starting to show so I figured two birds with one stone, right?"

"You can go bird hunting at the hair salon?"

* * *

As the twins walked through the entrance of the salon, Sharpay was accosted with a variety of smells that seemed vaguely familiar. She took her time looking around as Ryan followed her, hissing the back stories of all the stylists into her ear. Apparently she wasn't going to be telling people she has amnesia.

"Your usual stylist is named Veronica, but you call her Ronnie, and yes she hates it. She's from the Ukraine and she is trying to save enough money to move her family here. You're getting your hair dyed and styled today, and you pretend you can never understand her, despite her remarkably good English. Again, she hates it. You usually dominate the conversation, but I would suggest implying laryngitis today. Got it?"

"Yes. Except. What's laryngitis?"

Ryan rolled his eyes, exasperated, and pushed her towards the waiting stylist.

"So, Sharpay. What is it we're doing today?" Veronica asked.

"What?" Sharpay asked with a shaking voice. She was too nervous to comprehend what was being said to her, "Oh, I'm getting it dyed and styled." Veronica nodded and led her to the wash sink to shampoo her hair.

Ryan watched the conversation anxiously, but allowed himself to relax after the initial exchange. _'Maybe this will work'_ he wished. Picking up a magazine he prepared to sit back for a couple hours, glancing up every now and then to check on the progress of the appointment. Sharpay appeared to be much more comfortable than when she first spoke, she was even moving her arms animatedly as she chatted with Veronica. Ryan smiled triumphantly at this and turned his full attention to the magazine in his hands.

It wasn't until the word 'natural' floated across the waiting area and into his consciousness that he jerked his attention back to his sister. She was sitting in the same position she'd been in an hour ago, but Veronica had a brush of dark hair dye and a stack of tin foil at the ready. Ryan jumped from his seat as Veronica's brush approached the fake blonde hair attached to Sharpay's head. Running toward the chair he reached out his hand and screamed "NNNOOOOO!" Startled, Veronica dropped the brush on the floor, cursed in Russian, and turned to Ryan with an accusatory expression.

"Shar, we're done here," he said as he yanked the smock off of her.

"No we're not. Ry, I like it here. We're staying!" She proclaimed, crossing her arms over he chest in defiance.

"Sharpay, there is no way I'm going to allow you to dye your hair back to its natural color. You are either touching up the roots or we're out of here. With an extra small tip," he added with a glance toward Veronica.

Taking the hint, Veronica appeased his demands, "Oh, Sharpay, this color really does look great on you. I think Ryan is right. You dyed it blonde for a reason, remember?"

"No," Sharpay whispered, but nodded her head in dejected agreement.

* * *

An hour later, Sharpay slammed the car door closed in an attempt to express her irritation with her brother. Ryan got in the car after her, entirely impervious to her anger. Instead, he decided to focus his attention back to reacquiring her memory, completely disregarding her resistance to his efforts.

"I've got one more plan. And this is sure to work."

"Can we just go home? I'm tired."

"It'll only take a couple minutes," was his reply.

Ten minutes later, they pulled into the empty parking lot of East High School. "You spend two thirds of your life in this building. I'm sure everything will come flying back once you get in there."

Sharpay got out of the car and slowly walked toward the entrance, intimidated by the vastness of the building. Once inside, Ryan stayed behind and waited for Sharpay to take the lead. Three silent minutes later, the two were still just inside the front entrance.

"How about we start with your locker?" Ryan suggested, unable to sit back any longer. They approached a set of lockers that looked identical to all the others they had passed along the way, except this set had one pink locker located at the end of the row. "So, do you remember which one is yours?" Ryan asked, expectantly. He figured this was a good place to start, considering it is impossible for Sharpay to _not_ know which locker is hers. And her correct guess will, in turn, provide her with the confidence boost she (and he) so desperately need.

She hesitantly looked from the set of lockers and back to her brother. She wanted to remember. She needed to remember, for Ryan's sake. He was trying so hard to help her, it just wasn't working. Slowly, she took a step towards the left end of the row, but quickly stopped when she heard Ryan involuntarily make a disapproving noise. Turning, she took another step, but this time to the right. Sensing his approval, she slowly continued. Finally, she was left with the choice of the pink locker, or the plain locker directly next to it. Closing her eyes, she tried to sense which locker was hers. Surprisingly, that didn't work, which left her with logical reasoning. _'Could it be the pink locker? That would imply I really think I'm special,'_ she thought, _'But I'm not special, and that Gabriella girl seemed like she was the school diva. No, this must be a trick. The pink locker must be her locker so, clearly, mine is the one next to hers.'_ She concluded, indicating to Ryan her final guess.

"No," he said curtly, clearly trying to contain his annoyance. "It's the pink one."

Sharpay was surprised, but knew better than to say anything to Ryan. It looked like the combination of frustration andaggravation that she seemed to be inflicting upon him was about to explode from within his head.

"How about we try the drama department?" Ryan suggested tersely. Without waiting for a reply, he headed in the direction of the school auditorium. Following, Sharpay looked at all the notices and signs posted along the halls. She tried to make mental notes of different classrooms and landmarks so that, come Monday, she wouldn't be totally dependant upon Ryan. But after passing what she thought was the same wildcat statue for the third time, she decided independence was not in her immediate future.

Lost in her thoughts of hair salons, confusing hallways, and ...Troy? ... Sharpay didn't realize she was in the auditorium until she ran right into Ryan, who had stopped walking upon entering the large room. "Here we are," he announced with open arms and a huge grin on his face. His previous annoyance seemed to have disappeared. Or it is well hidden. "This is our shared sanctuary."

Tired of being a disappointment to her brother, Sharpay decided to play along. With a huge grin she took the final steps towards the stage. Remembering Ryan telling her that she loved musicals she turned to him with the same grin and proclaimed "I remember!" with a giggle she skipped back towards Ryan and clasped his hands in hers, repeating "I remember now! We watched every production East High has ever put on in this room!"

With a grunt, Ryan ripped his hands out of her grip, effectively throwing her off balance. With a look of revulsion on his face he thrust his hands into the air and shouted "No! No, Sharpay! We didn't _watch_ any production here. We _performed_ them." He then turned and started to storm out of the auditorium but stopped when he reached the main doors. Without turning again to face her, he said over his shoulder in an eerily calm tone, "And don't you ever lie to me again". He then walked out, leaving Sharpay on the floor, with an overwhelming sense of dejection.

* * *

Ryan sat in his car for twenty minutes, waiting for Sharpay to follow him out. When she never came, he drove away without a single pang of guilt. _'If she wants to stay, then fine. Let her find her own way home'_.

* * *

At the same moment that Ryan was pulling away, Sharpay decided she was finally calm enough to join him. She found her way back to the parking lot only to find it empty. Not a single car in sight. What bothered her most was not that he had left without her, but that she did not feel any surprise related to his departure.

Without even hesitating, Sharpay headed toward the only place she knew of that was walking distance from the school. As she walked, she repeated in her head the events of the past few hours. '_How can I be such a disappointment to Ryan? All I'm doing is trying'_.

At long last, with sore feet and a worked up emotional state she finally reached her destination. She walked up to the door and took three calming breaths. She did not want to appear a complete mess but as the door slowly opened after three knocks, her composure seemed to go with it.

* * *

Troy stood in his open doorway facing a sobbing Sharpay. _'How does she know where I live?'_ he thought. Ruling that question out as slightly too rude to verbalize, he instead asked, "Sharpay? What are you doing here?"

"Ryan said. And I lied. And then he. And now I'm all alone," she said between her sobs. Without even thinking of the consequences, Sharpay stepped into the house and threw her arms around him.

Troy stood there for a second – arms at his side with Sharpay hanging off of him – trying to decipher what she had just said when the final statement hit him, "Hold up, Ryan left you?" He asked, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her away so that he could look into her eyes.

Sharpay nodded as the tears continued to stain her cheeks.

Troy closed the door and led Sharpay to the couch. "Tell me what happened, Sharpay," he said gently as he protectively put his arm around her.

It took her a couple minutes to respond. Troy remained in that position, providing as much emotional strength as he could muster. Eventually, Sharpay calmed down enough to reply.

"I can't remember."

**

* * *

Sorry there's so much crying going on right now. I don't know where all this depression and anger is coming from but apparently I've got if buried deep down. The way I see it is, someone in Sharpay's situation would, at first, have very extreme emotions. Not knowing or remembering anything would be incredibly exhausting and would certainly infuriate me. I believe that it wouldn't be until that person experiences life again and creates new memories that (s)he will be able to stabilize his/her moods. I'm trying to represent these emotions through both the Evans twins. Sharpay is sad and desperate, Ryan is irritated and frustrated. All they both want is for Sharpay to remember again.**

**Oh, and in case it wasn't clear, Sharpay's last statement of "I can't remember" is referring to her entire past that she can't remember. Not the argument that she and Ryan just had. She isn't losing her short term memory, as well. Trust me, she remembers that argument!**

**And, as always, REVIEW!!!**


	4. Reentries

**Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical or its characters.**

Re-entries

"Absolutely not! I am not going to allow you to leave this house in that outfit," Ryan said sternly to an oddly dressed Sharpay. Well, to most standards she wasn't dressed oddly, but when faced with the 'Evans twins' status, her choice of stylish jeans and a form-fitting tee just didn't cut it.

Sharpay looked down at her choice of clothing and compared it with what Ryan was wearing. "Oh, so that's why these were in the veiled recesses of my closet. I just thought I was hiding them from you so you wouldn't steal them." She said as she retreated into her room for the third time that morning. "As if," he retorted to the now closed door.

Finally, on her third try, she came out in a hot-pink, sequined top and skin-tight leather pants that were tucked into her knee-high, pointy toed black boots. "Perfect," Ryan smiled. Sharpay stood there with a worried expression on her face as she fidgeted with the placement of the pants on her hips. "Am I supposed to squeak when I move in these?" She asked. Ryan gave a hearty laugh and grabbed her book-bag as well as his own. He took three steps before stopping and turning back to Sharpay with a curious expression. "I just have one question," he said to her. "How could you do your hair and make-up so perfectly, but have that much trouble with your clothing?"

"Easy," Sharpay shrugged. "I found my hair and make-up reference book. Complete with instructions, pictures and tips for how to do my hair and make-up for every occasion. Did you know, I have 23 different styles for school? It's true. And there are specific styles of make-up that can never be paired with certain hairstyles. Do you remember October 12th two years ago? I don't, but something big must've happened to never allow me to wear gold eye-shadow with a curly-down hairstyle."

"Glad I asked."

Sharpay didn't stop her tirade on hair and make-up rules until they were nearing the school ("And I can only wear an up-do once a week, because it implies a laziness despite the fact that it takes more work and is harder to do..."), at which point she trailed off and merely gazed out the window. Ryan noticed that she got oddly quiet rather quickly but decided to chalk it up to nerves. And as the silence was welcome, breaking it to ask for the cause was not high on his priorities list. Unfortunately, he also noticed that she seemed to be focusing intensely on her thoughts (schemes?), which usually lead to...

"Ryan STOP!" Sharpay burst, interrupting the silence so suddenly that Ryan jumped in his seat, which inadvertently caused him to stomp on the accelerator.

"What?" Ryan asked in a complete panic as he realized his mistake and slammed his foot, this time on the breaks, which caused the car behind him to swerve into the ditch while the driver simultaneously cursed rather loudly and shook a finger in Ryan's direction.

It took the twins a couple minutes to recuperate before either could continue the conversation. Sharpay was faster in her recovery. Holding her hand over her chest in an attempt to steady her increased heart-rate, she answered Ryan's question in a voice that did not indicate her experience in the past few moments, "Don't you think it would be nice to offer Troy a ride to school?"

"What?" Ryan asked again. His stature was a mirror image of Sharpay's, with his hand pressed against his chest, but his breathing was coming in short gasps and he was finding it difficult to focus on what his sister was trying to say. As the words sank in, he realized that they had skidded to halt, on a diagonal, in the middle of the street directly in front of the Bolton residence. As if on cue, Troy opened the front door and stepped out onto his porch, soon followed by his father.

"Oh look, he's right there," Sharpay exclaimed excitedly while rolling down her window. "Troy!" She called. Confused, Troy looked around to find the source of the voice. "Over here, TROY!" Sharpay yelled even louder. Finally connecting sound to image, Troy leaned over and muttered something to his dad before slowly making his way to the idled car.

"Um, Shar, his dad works at the school. I'm pretty sure he has a permanent ride." Ryan whispered to Sharpay as Troy drew near. Sharpay decided to ignore her brothers' statement.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked.

"Get in, we're taking you to school!" She said as though this were their daily routine.

"Oh. Um, thanks and all, but my dad can take me," he responded awkwardly as he pointed towards his father, who was standing with his car door open, curiously watching their conversation.

"Nonsense, you're coming with us and I won't let you refuse," Sharpay persisted. Troy looked passed her to Ryan who just responded with an apologetic shrug. "Fine," Troy sighed. "Just let me tell my dad."

"Uh, sis? What the hell was that?" Ryan asked as he watched Troy's retreating form.

"Nothing," Sharpay responded innocently. Ryan turned an accusatory glare onto his sister, which didn't falter despite the charming smile and batting eyelashes that Sharpay sent back. He knew what she was doing and he did not like it. "I'm not doing anything!" She insisted. "I just thought it'd be nice of us to offer a ride."

* * *

"Thanks for the, uh, ride," Troy said as they pulled into the parking spot. "I'll catch you guys later?" He said as he hurried to join his group of friends who were congregating near the entrance of the school, not even waiting for a response. 

"Yeah!" Sharpay called after him, "And how about after school, maybe, we could do something about that-"

"Give it up, Sharpay, he's gone."

Sharpay slammed her door shut and turned to Ryan with a pout on her face as she pulled her pants up higher on her hips. "What's my first class again?"

"Oh please, that's not for another seven minutes," Ryan responded, with a glance at his watch. "We'll worry about that when the time comes. First, we have to get you inside. Now, remember what I taught you? Throw your chin up, head straight to your locker and remember to make eye contact with nobody. Got it?"

"Sure." Sharpay wasn't paying attention. She was too distracted by the vast amount of people that seemed to be blocking her way to the entrance. _'There certainly are a lot of students at this school'_ she thought as she approached the front doors. _'Stop. Now, focus, Sharpay. Chin up, head towards my locker and remember to make eye contact. Wait, thats not right...'_

Sharpay took one step into the crowded front hallway of East High School and the masses immediately parted. _'Aw, how sweet of them,'_ she thought as she threw a couple smiles around to her fellow classmates. "_Sh_tp-it!" she heard Ryan try to hiss without moving his lips, but she was too busy enjoying all the love that was emanating in her direction – _'Is that girl booing me?'_. The thought barely had time to complete its formation before the following sequence initiated:

On Sharpay's fourth step into the crowded front hallway of East High School she stepped on an old _Twinkle Towne_ poster lying on the floor. As she tried to take another wobbly step, the heal of her boot slipped on the paper and she could feel herself start to go down. She tried to stop what was inevitably to come, but her actions only worked to perpetuate the motion. She flailed her arms, flapping them in circles in an attempt to shift the direction of momentum. Her foot flew up in front of her and she seemed to be suspended in air just long enough for her to grab onto Ryan's shoulder. With that contact, Ryan looked and saw Sharpay in mid-fall. He reached over and tried to disconnect her hand from his shoulder but she already had it in her unnaturally strong grip. They were both going down. Sharpay landed with a squeak, flat on her back, staring at the ceiling (_'That yellow splotch does not look good'_) with a circle of snickering students in her periphery and was that a camera flash that just went off? A second later, Ryan landed on top of her, face down and humiliated.

Quickly, Ryan scrambled to his feet, forcibly ignoring the poorly suppressed laughter coming from the crowd, and was about to offer his hand to Sharpay but saw that he was too late. Zeke Baylor was already there, concern etched on his face and hand extended toward Sharpay. Ryan rolled his eyes, _'Will this guy never get the hint?'_. But, instead of giving him the brush-off, like Ryan was expecting, Sharpay smiled up at him and accepted the outstretched hand.

* * *

Among the crowd of students who witnessed Sharpay's memorable re-entrance into school life were Gabriella and Troy. As much as Troy wanted his daily routine to return to its Sharpay-less norm, Gabriella seemed to have the opposite intention. 

"Ugh, look at her. Just because she spent a short stint in the hospital, she thinks her celebrity status has been augmented."

"Um, I'm pretty sure that's not what she's thinking."

"Don't you dare come to her rescue, Troy. What is it about her that makes you feel responsible?" Gabriella asked turning a critical glare on Troy.

"Responsible?" He gulped. "You know...uh...She said you have pretty hair."

Gabriella gasped excitedly, "She did? Oh my goodness, when did she say this? And what style was my hair in when she made the comment? I'm going to wear my hair like that for the rest of the week. Hey Taylor! Wait up! You'll never guess what Sharpay said about my hair!"

Troy shook his head in incredulity as he headed in the opposite direction. What is it with girls and their hair?

* * *

The rest of the day went slowly for Troy. He was walking down the hallway, heading to class after lunch, too deep in thought to even notice Sharpay smile at him and wave as she passed (_'What is that incessant squeaking?'_). He simply couldn't get that morning out of his head. Sharpay fell, everybody laughed, and then _Zeke _helped her up. It wasn't so much the fact that Zeke helped her up which was bothering him. It was that smile she gave him. That special smile that means so much more than words can express. That smile that offers the rare glimpse into Sharpay's inner thoughts. But that smile was directed towards _Zeke_, when it belonged to Troy. _'Ok, fine, it never really _belonged_ to me,'_ he reasoned He'd just gotten used to having possession of that smile, and he wasn't ready to give it up. He wasn't ready for her to take it away. He wasn't ready for her to _give_ it away.

* * *

For Sharpay, the rest of the day was a blur of notes, adjusting her pants and trying to match people to their yearbook picture, which Ryan had Sharpay study for four hours the previous night. Finally, the end of day bell rang. Sharpay let out a huge sigh. One day down, it can only get better from here, right? She picked up her book bag and slowly made her way down the hall, toward her locker, for the last time today. 

"Hey, Sharpay, you're coming to the Drama Club meeting, yes?" Asked a voice from somewhere to Sharpays right. Sharpay looked but couldn't figure out who was speaking. All the students seemed to be rushing by her so quickly and her thoughts were so overwhelmed with the need to be alone in order to get these pants off and to digest the day she'd just had, that she couldn't even accomplish the simple task of conversing with another person.

"Very funny, Sharpay, pretend you don't see me. I thought we'd run that joke to the ground, but I guess one more time wont hurt," came the voice again, obviously annoyed at Sharpays behavior. _'Ah ha!'_ She saw lips moving to the timing of the words she'd just heard. _'I've found my mysterious speaker. And his name is . . . Alex? No, Alice? No, that's a girls name. Although he does look a little girly. Focus, Sharpay, what is this boys' name? Oh! Oh! I remember! It's-'_

"Alan! Sorry, I just couldn't resist doing it one more time," She said, trying to cover her blunder. It seemed to work because Alan forced a smile and nodded along to her statement.

"So, are you coming?" he repeated, trying to get this train wreck conversation back on track.

"Where?" she asked, looking around for clues as to what they were talking about.

"Drama club! We have a meeting? We're deciding the next play? Any of this ringing a bell?"

"Oh, right! Drama club. Meeting. The next play. Of course. I just have to stop by my locker first," She replied. "Oh, Alan? Can you just tell me what room we meet in?"

Alan laughed and walked away muttering something about Sharpay always being the 'jokester'.

* * *

Lucky for Sharpay, Ryan was waiting for her at her locker. As they headed to the drama club meeting, he reenacted the hair salon scene, hissing the back stories of all the drama club members into Sharpays ear and again suggesting that she imply laryngitis. 

"Don't be silly, Ryan," She said right before they entered the classroom already stocked with the seven other drama club members. Sharpay began to take a seat in a desk when she heard Ryan clear his throat rather dramatically. Having heard this noise many times over the past couple of days, Sharpay knew it was an indication that she'd made a wrong move. Laughing, she stood up again and said as haughtily as she could muster "I just wanted to see the view from this lowly position. Because, of course, being co-presidents of the Drama club means that we don't sit in these disgusting, uncomfortable desks as equals with the rest of the group. We have high and mighty positions that are represented with our placement on this-" Ryan cleared his throat again. "-here." Sharpay quickly finished.

"Alright, young thespians. The objective of the present moments' assembly is to determine the production that we will be performing come the end of this term. At this point, I would like to open the floor to debate from the members." Ms. Darbus proclaimed.

"I'll start off," said Kelsi. "I think we should do a sequel to _Twinkle Towne_."

"You would think that, wouldn't you," Ryan muttered.

"How about _Wicked_?" Cyndra suggested.

"Oh please, that is way overdone these days." said a girl who was chomping away on some left-over microwave popcorn. What was that girls name again?

"What are you talking about, it's becoming a modern classic." Wait, and his name is-

"Hence the fact that it is over done and clichéd. We need to pick something original." Said . . . um . . . Oh, never mind.

"I've got a suggestion - "

"A sequel to _Twinkle Towne _would be original. A Kelsi Nielsen original."

"Will you shut it?"

"What about _Grease_?"

"Have you not been listening to this conversation?"

"Yeah, but _Grease_ is better than a classic. It can never be over done!"

"Other than the fact that it was done both here and at West High, just last year?"

"Ok, well, other than that."

"I've got it, I've got it!"

"A sequel to _Twinkle Towne_ wasn't done at West High last year."

Sharpay tried to follow the flow of the conversation, but with the duel task of interpreting what everybody was talking about and trying to remember their names, she was quickly left behind. Instead, she decided to look around the room. So, this is what a drama room looks like, huh? It was very cluttered, with a miniature stage and random props lying around. And every poster on the bulletin board had the same symbol on it. Two masks, one was frowning, the other smiling. Sharpay looked over at the closed door. She seemed to remember that same symbol being posted on the outside of that door. And in the auditorium! But what does it mean?

Forgetting that there was a heated discussion taking place, Sharpay adjusted her pants with one hand and raised her other hand. Slightly taken-aback, everybody stopped talking. Kelsi stopped jumping with her arms in the air and shouting "A SEQUEL TO _TWINKLE TOWNE_, A SEQUEL TO _TWINKLE TOWNE_!", Ryan unplugged his ears and shot her a worried expression as the girl with the popcorn paused her chomping. All their attention was fully focused on her. When she was sure it was alright to speak, Sharpay lowered her hand and cleared her throat. "Um, well, I just wanted to ask. What is that symbol that is posted everywhere? The one with the frowning faced mask, and the smiling faced mask?"

Ryan dropped his face onto his hands. After all he did to prepare her for today, couldn't she just keep her mouth shut?

A couple beats of stunned silence followed her question with every eye boring straight into her head. Ms. Darbus was the first to respond.

"Genius! Sharpay, you are absolute genius!" Ryan's head came flying back up to focus his attention on Ms. Darbus. "I'm sorry?" Sharpay asked, puzzled as to what part of her question was genius.

"Just like you said, what are those masks? We need to revisit the origins of performing theatre, the origins of the Comedy Tragedy masks! Before the invent of modern Broadway, back to the works that inspired Shakespeare, himself. We are going to perform the Greek Classic, _Lysistrata_." Ms. Darbus said turning to face Sharpay with dramatically open arms and a pleased smile on her face. Turning to the rest of the students, she finished her speech with, "I wish all of you would think more like Sharpay. She never seems to disappoint. Well, I believe that solves our quandary for the day. Our conference is now over."

The seven members plus Ryan all grabbed their book bags and slinked out of the classroom grumbling about that jab to their intelligence. Seemingly oblivious to this, Sharpay gave Ms. Darbus a huge smile and flounced out of the room after Ryan.

**

* * *

Ahhh, it feels good to have that done! This chapter was giving me a bit of lip, but I whipped it into shape! Hahah, anyway, it was a hard one to write. I don't know if that's just because it was finals week and I'm completely burned out from studying (keep your fingers crossed for A's!!) or because I got a letter in the mail from my parents this week. I haven't talked to them in over a year now, so the letter was a bit of a surprise. I actually haven't opened it yet; I figured they can't say anything bad about/to me if I don't read it, right? Ugh, I know, I know. Now that I've finished my exams and written this chapter I have nothing else to claim to be more important. I'll do it once I finish posting this chapter. **

**Review my story and wish me luck...**


	5. Quest for Self Discovery

**Hello world of Fan Fiction! Thanks for the votes of confidence for my grades. They haven't come yet, I think it'll be another week before they do, although I probably won't be home to receive them.**

**Before we get to the story, I'd like to answer a couple questions that came up in my reviews. **

_**King Philip**_**, you wanted to know what Ryan was thinking when Sharpay demanded control over the popcorn distribution in chapter 2. Well, Ryan was shocked by her request because the old Sharpay never ate popcorn. In fact, the smell of it usually made her sick. The snack of choice for the old Sharpay was carrot sticks and ranch dressing. All this was running through his head because it was the first time the thought crossed Ryan's mind that this Sharpay is not who she was before the amnesia.**

_**King Philip**_** also wanted to know why Sharpay didn't have a clothing reference book when she did have a hair and make-up reference book. She actually does have a clothing reference book, but it is in a large hat box on the top shelf of her closet. And her closet is so vast that she didn't have a chance to look through everything. She just hasn't found it yet.**

_**King Philip**_** (goodness you're a curious one) – Gabriella was that excited to receive Sharpay's approval because, even though Sharpay is mean, she's also popular. And it is common in high school to want the popular girls' approval even if you aren't much of a fan of her. You especially crave this validation if you are a member of the second string populars – like Gabriella seems to be.**

**I also wanted to give a shout-out to **_**NiteAngel**_**. You are very close, but there are quite a few more twists along the way . . .**

**Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or its characters. And the homage to LonelyGirl15 is just that, an homage. If anybody has the youtube account username of LonesomeGirl16, I apologize. I did not mean to steal it.**

* * *

Quest for Self Discovery

Sharpay was sitting in the darkened living area. She had a bowl of theatre-style buttered popcorn in her lap and she was sitting cross legged on the couch. She was thinking. She'd been doing that a lot lately. Thinking. Trying to figure out who she is. And who she was. _'Are they the same thing?'_ she wondered. Judging by her peer's reactions to her, it seems she created quite a reputation at school. But she didn't think that reputation was an accurate representation of her true self. Did the amnesia change her? Or is she just overreacting to a few unpleasant looks sent in her direction?

Sharpay decided that the best way to figure out who she really is, is to figure out who she really was. And so, with this bowl of popcorn, she is officially embarking on her quest for self discovery.

* * *

Gabriella and Troy were heading back to his house after a relaxing picnic in the park. School requires so many extra time commitments, they sometimes have difficulty finding time to spend together. Troy had planned this picnic all week and was pleased to see that it was executed flawlessly. Now they were going back to Troy's empty house to enjoy a few more minutes of alone time. 

The couple slowly approached the front door, Troy bogged down with the picnic basket and everything that was inside of it, Gabriella bouncing along next to him carrying a left over sandwich. She was really looking forward to the church retreat that she'll be going on next weekend. She'd spent most of the afternoon describing her plans to Troy.

"And there is this girl who, I can just tell, hasn't completely accepted Jesus Christ into her heart. I think this weekend will be the perfect opportunity to Save her, don't you think?"

Troy, on the other hand, was very good at giving canned responses at appropriate intervals.

"Mmhmm."

He managed to juggle the picnic accessories as he unlocked the door, but as soon as it swung open he dropped everything onto the floor. Hearing something other than Gabriella's prattling, he looked over and saw that he'd left the TV on that morning. _'Good thing we beat the 'rents home,'_ he thought. Leaving the TV on when nobody was home is one of their major pet peeves.

* * *

Sharpay had been sitting on that couch for a good hour. At first in contemplation, but after ten minutes she'd gotten bored and decided to watch television. _Access Hollywood_ was her new favorite program. The next fifty minutes were whiled away in lazy revere of those lucky enough to make the show. 

As the commercial break started she noticed her popcorn bowl was running low, so she went into the kitchen in search of another microwave bag. While she was in there, she heard the front door open followed by a loud thump as the house-members entered. _'Finally! He's home,'_ She thought excitedly. Somebody else to entertain her, as well as help her on her quest for self discovery!

But those plans were quickly pushed to the side of her mind when she heard the TV shut off.

"Hey!" She called. "I was watching that!"

* * *

"And you're out of popcorn. You might want to buy some more the next time you're at the grocery store." Sharpay said as she walked back into the living area. 

"Oh my goodness, Troy. What was that?" Gabriella whispered in a near panic, oblivious to the other girl who was just walking out from the shadows.

"Sharpay! What are you doing here? In my house? In the dark?" Troy asked, having difficulty comprehending this entire situation.

"Uh, watching TV. Duh." She replied, as if that were normal.

"I can see that, but how'd you get in?"

"That's not important. What is important is that I talk to you. Except..." She trailed off as she glanced over to Gabriella whose mouth had yet to close since she first noticed Sharpay's presence. Realizing that Sharpay didn't want to speak in front of her, Gabriella finally came out of her stupor in order to reply.

"Dont. Worry. Sharpay." She said very loudly and very slowly. "Troy. Told. Me. About. The. Am.Ne.Sia."

Sharpay was unsure as to why this girl, who she recognized from the tape of _Twinkle Town_, was speaking to her as if she were an idiot, so she simply decided to respond in the same manner. For all she knew, the idiot was this girl.

"O.K. I'm. Going. To. Talk. To. Troy. Now." Turning to Troy, she shot him a questioning look before asking in her normal voice, "Who am I?"

"Huh?"

"I'm trying to figure out who I am."

"Well, currently, you are illegally inside my home. And in a couple minutes you will be legally outside my home." He responded matter of factly, while grabbing her elbow and leading her to the door.

"Oh, I get it." She stage whispered as she voluntarily took the final step out onto the porch. "You and miss pretty-hair here want to be alone. Ok, we'll talk later."

"Good. Bye. Shar.Pay." Gabriella called from inside the house.

"What's wrong with her, anyway?"

Chuckling and shaking his head, Troy closed the door without bothering to answer the question. Mostly because, at the moment, he wouldn't know where to begin.

* * *

The next day came and Sharpay had not made a single advancement on figuring out who she was. She was sitting in her European History class trying to pay attention to her teacher, Mr. Gaudé ("Go-Day. Go-Day. Never call me Mr. Gode."). Unfortunately, starting in the middle of history without any recollection of learning the beginning part poses a major problem when it comes to comprehension. 

Sharpay glanced over to Ryan and saw that he was furiously taking notes. Good, she can just copy his notes later. Right now she is going to re-read her own notes in an attempt to catch up. Back to page one:

_

* * *

9/4_

_King Philip II Augustus. King of France starting in 1180_

_Successfully Reorganized government. Financial Stability._

_Second wife named Ingeborg – well, that's unfortunate_

_Incest? EW!_

* * *

Incest? Ew! Moving forward..._

* * *

9/18_

_King Philip II of Spain. This is a different King Philip than King Philip II of France _

_Son of Charles V_

_-Ryan, are you doing anything after school today?_

_Philip II is a Habsburg_

_-Besides Drama Club? I don't think so, why?_

_-I had an idea for my next weblog episode and I wanted to stage it._

_Controls Spain, New world AND the Netherlands. Mmm, powerful._

_-Can I at least be in it this time? I hate being the camera man._

_He's catholic, the Netherlands are Calvinist_

_-Don't be stupid, Ryan. If you aren't the camera man, then who will be?_

_Tries to make Netherlands Catholic_

_-Fine, but we're changing the camera man situation soon_

_-Yay, I have such a good idea for this one!_

_Philip exterminates whoever won't convert. Ugh, harsh?_

* * *

"Ryan," Sharpay hissed after reading this. "Pst. Ryan." 

"What?" He whispered back without pausing from his note-taking.

"I have a weblog!" she hissed enthusiastically.

"Ms. Evans! Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of us?" Mr. Gaudé said, breaking from his lecture for the first time that day.

"I have a weblog, sir!" She said with the same amount of enthusiasm and a huge smile on her face.

"Oh. Yes, well, that's very good for you, Sharpay, but unless you discuss history in it, I would prefer if you continue your conversation after class." Mr. Gaudé said, irritated with the interruption.

"Of course, sir," she replied as sweetly as ever.

* * *

"What was my username?" They were back at home after school that day. Sharpay was sitting at her computer trying to figure out where her weblogs were located and Ryan was lying on her bed reading a magazine and pretending he couldn't hear her. 

"Ryan!"

Looking up, he finally responded, "I don't think you'll really find anything interesting on those. Wow, did you know that Vanessa Hudgens took nude photos? What a skank." He said, referring back to his magazine in an attempt to change the topic.

"Vanessa who? Oh, who really cares? I want to see these weblogs!" She insisted.

"Ugh, fine. Its LonesomeGirl16. But I really wish you wouldn't watch it."

Turning back to the computer, Sharpay typed 'LonesomeGirl16' into the search engine and was delighted to see many links for her blogs. Finding the first episode, entitled "First Blog/Hello Real Me", she clicked play and nervously sat back, ready to discover her real self. _' I wish I had some popcorn for this'_.

* * *

"First Blog/Hello Real Me"

**Sharpay is in front of her computer. Hair and make-up done casual**

Sharpay: Hi Guys! This is my first video blog. I've watched a couple of blogs out there. Most of you are, well, boring. But that is why I am making my own!

**Cut to shot of her fabulously dressed, posing and smiling for the camera. The sound of applause and whistling is cut in**

**Back to Sharpay talking in front of the computer**

Sharpay: Well, I guess this is supposed to be about me, so I'll give you a little run-down. My name is Sharpay. I'm sixteen. And, well, I'm not going to tell you where I live because you'll probably come stalk me and, trust me, I have enough of those.

**Cut to picture of a hooded man carrying an ax, with the sound of screaming**

**Back to Sharpay talking in front of the computer**

Sharpay: All you need to know about my town is that it is full of really boring people.

**CUT**

Sharpay: Like, really boring.

**CUT**

Sharpay: _Really_ boring people.

**CUT**

Sharpay: That's probably why I spend so much time pretending to be other people. (_Contemplatively_) Actually, that's probably why I sometimes forget who I really am.

**She sighs and then gives the camera a sad smile**.

Sharpay: Well, I finally have a place to be myself, right? All of you will see the real Sharpay.

**Goes through a speeded up sequence of her dancing around her room to the song "The Real Me" by W.A.S.P.**

**Back to Sharpay sitting on front of her computer, music stops**

Sharpay: Well guys, that's all for now. Bye!

**Scene**

* * *

Just as Sharpay had suspected, she had a reputation at school but it wasn't the real Sharpay. She wasn't very thrilled about how this video blog turned out, though. She seemed really sad and it wasn't fun watching herself that way. 

Unable to stop herself, Sharpay continued watching the blogs. Some were happier than others. Mostly they were of her and Ryan goofing off in her bedroom. Though she had been reluctant to divulge personal information on the internet, Sharpay was able to gather a few new facts about herself:

1. She and Ryan are not actually twins.

2. Their dad once worked for the CIA

3. Sharpay was a member of what she thought was a secret religion until she had realized it was a sacrificial cult. She and Ryan tried to run away because the cult leaders were after Sharpay for her abandonment.

Before she could move on to the last episode, Sharpay's attention was caught by a comment authored by her most consistent reviewer:

_King Philip: Oh, poor you! I can't believe the cult leaders are still after you! Why won't they just let it go? You already promised you wouldn't tell anybody their secret!_

_There seems to be some friction between you and Ryan. Are you two ok? Spending too much time together is never a good thing, and you guys need each other more than ever right now. And, seriously girl, how long are you going to go on hiding from these people. The only way to stop them is to confront them!_

King Philip had made a very good point about the tension between Ryan and Sharpay, that was evident in the web videos. And did he seriously suggest that she confront the cult leaders? What if she had followed his advice and that is how she actually ended up in the hospital with amnesia? No, Ryan wouldn't have lied about that. Although, it's not like he told her anything else she'd discovered through these weblogs.

This all gave Sharpay a very bad feeling about what was to come but she'd watched too much to stop now. There was just one episode left and she had to know if she still needed to worry about these cult leaders.

* * *

"On The Run"

**Ryan and Sharpay are in a seedy motel room. The blinds are closed and it is very dark. Ryan is lying on the bed reading as Sharpay talks to the camera**

Sharpay: Hey guys. Ryan and I are in a motel right now. We've been moving around a LOT but I really needed a place to wash my hair, so we decided one night in a motel wouldn't be too dangerous. At least we can lock the doors, right Ryan?

Ryan: Mmm

Sharpay: (_Whispering_) Ryan is mad at me for –

Ryan: I said I wasn't mad at you.

**Sharpay nods into the camera to silently insist that Ryan actually is mad**

Sharpay: We used fake names, so they can't track us. I'm Ashley and he's Lucas. It is really boring being on the run . Coming up with those names was the most excitement we've had in two weeks. We have nothing to do!

**The camera is set on the bed still running as they go about their business. It is played in fast forward as the not-twins-anymore are seen lying around reading and talking**

**The picture cuts back in, a close-up of Sharpay's scared face. She is standing by the window peaking through the crack in the blinds, revealing that they are on the second floor**

Sharpay: (_Whispering_) We think they found us. There's been a car sitting right below our window with a man sitting in it for the past three hours. Ryan is going down to investigate. If it turns out that he's one of the cult leaders, we're going to have to make a really fast get-away.

**She points the camera through the blinds and onto the car. Everything is quiet except for her heavy breathing. Suddenly, there is a loud smashing sound**

**Sharpay screams**

Sharpay: WHO ARE YOU?! Get away from me!

**A hooded man is attacking her. She gets away from the man and runs down the hall with him close behind. The camera, clutched backwards in her hand, is faced toward the hooded figure. The attacker's hood slips down just before the picture cuts out**

**Cut back in to Sharpay and Ryan in their car, speeding down an industrial street**

Sharpay: (_out of breath_) Oh my gosh. That was close. The guy was chasing me. Good thing Ryan was ready at the end of the hallway with a bat. He knocked the guy down long enough for us to get into the car.

**Points the camera on Ryan, who is driving**

Sharpay: Ryan, I'm really scared.

**Ryan grabs her hand as he gives the camera and Sharpay a reassuring nod.**

**Scene**

* * *

"Oh my God, Ryan what happened to us?" She asked, still staring shocked at the paused computer screen. There was no response. Sharpay turned around ready to yell at Ryan for ignoring her again but she saw that her room was empty. '_When did Ryan leave?'_ She wondered. Looking at her clock, she realized she'd been watching these videos for hours. He probably left long ago, out of sheer boredom since he could still remember what had happened. Sharpay wondered why Ryan never mentioned any of this to her before this point but she decided that he was probably just trying to protect her. But this was not something she could keep to herself. There had to be somebody else she could discuss it with.

* * *

Troy looked at his watch. Who would be ringing the doorbell at this hour? 

He slowly opened the front door and was not surprised to find Sharpay standing there. He was starting to expect her at random moments in his life. This time she stood there looking very agitated as she shifted from side to side and kept glancing behind her.

Troy stared at her, "Why do you keep coming here, Sharpay?"

"Oh, for goodness sake, you're going to stop asking me that question one of these days." She responded quickly while shoving her way through the door. "Troy, I just found out something awful about myself."

"Oh. Who finally told you?" He asked, figuring she had found out about her nick-name.

"Ryan did. And you knew about it too?" She asked, her voice rising in panic. Had she dragged him into her deadly life too? How could she do that to him? And how had he ever forgiven her? Maybe he hadn't forgiven her.

"Well, yeah, everybody knows."

"Everybody? Then how come there weren't more casualties?" She asked, control over her volume level completely lost.

"Casualties? You aren't talking about the 'Ice-Queen' nick-name, are you?"

"Ice-what? No, you must be talking about somebody else's blog. I'm–" Sharpay leaned in close to Troy and lowered her voice to a whisper as if somebody dangerous might overhear her, "LonesomeGirl16."

"You're who?" Troy whispered back, mimicking her leaning stance.

"Let me just show you. Where's your computer?" Her volume level was back up again as her agitation returned in full force.

Troy showed her to the computer room, more out of fear of bodily harm if he didn't follow her directions than anything else. Sharpay proceeded to play her Weblogs for him and he dutifully watched them all, though not as intensely as she had. An hour and a half later they finally came to the episode that had left Sharpay so troubled. As Troy watched, he was trying desperately not to be as drawn into the narrative as he already was. These episodes looked as though they were authentic, but he remained skeptical. There just wasn't a stretch time where this all could have taken place. Ryan and Sharpay had never missed an extended period of school and how can anybody honestly believe that they aren't twins?

The episode finished and Sharpay turned to Troy with a crazed look in her eyes.

"See? See what happened? Ryan wasn't there to tell me if this was ever resolved. What if the cult leaders are still after me? How do we know that this is all over?"

Troy didn't respond. Instead, he rewound the episode and started it again from the point where Sharpay was attacked. Not knowing why he was watching again, Sharpay quieted down and allowed him to view it again. He was focusing on the screen very intensely and she didn't want to disrupt his concentration. At the point where Sharpay was being chased down the hall Troy started to laugh hysterically.

"Why are you laughing? Stop it! That's not very nice. I was almost killed here!" She yelled indignantly, while putting her hands on her hips and adopting a defensive pose.

"I'm sorry, Sharpay, I don't mean to be rude. It's just, you and Ryan are still twins, your dad did not work for the CIA and you were not in a sacrificial cult that tried to kill you once you quit." He said, sobering is laughter when he saw how upset she really was.

"What are you talking about? You saw the same videos that I did!"

"Alright, watch your attacker very closely," he said, while replaying the chase down the hall for the third time.

Sharpay leaned in close to the computer and focused on the hooded figure. Just when the man's hood fell off, Troy paused the episode so that Sharpay could get a good clear look at who her attacker was.

"Ryan?" Sharpay gasped. "This whole thing was staged?"

**

* * *

So, there's a super long chapter for you. I promise this is as long as they'll get. I know some people don't like crazy long chapters, so I apologize.**

**In case you're wondering, which you probably aren't, I opened the letter from my parents. And it was not good news. Definitely, definitely not good news. I find that when I have stresses and worries in life, I tend to escape into fantasy land a lot more. I already have some great ideas as to where this story is going because of that letter.**

**As you could probably tell, this chapter was a tribute to all the King Philip's of the world!**

**I hope you enjoyed and, as always, REVIEW!**


	6. Why Utah?

**Hey y'all! Oh, sorry. I must've been channeling Paula Deen there for a second. I hope you all had a good holiday!**

**So, I'm sorry it took me a little longer to update this time. This has been an interesting holiday season for me (to say the least) and I allowed myself to get a bit distracted.**

**Well, like last time, I'm going to precede this chapter with a short question answer session stimulated from my reviews:**

_**Clotisy **_**and**_** OoIce QueenoO, **_**I totally agree with you, Troy should chill when it comes to Sharpay. But we have to understand his side of the story. He is in the midst of major internal struggle (What are these new emotions that I feel whenever Sharpay's around? Why does Gabriella not do it for him anymore? And will that girl ever shut up? Oh crap, they are in the same room together!) and the only way he feels he can deal with all these things are to bury them and pretend nothing has changed. Which is why he is still mean to Sharpay (when Gabriella's around...) even though he secretly doesn't want to be. But, don't worry, Sharpay hardly notices.**

**And yes,**_** OoIce QueenoO**_**, Ryan and Sharpay are still twins. I absolutely love them as twins so I wouldn't be able to stand myself if I took that away. I just think, as twins, they have such an interesting relationship!**

_**King Philip **_**wants to know what Gabriella's church retreat is about and all I can really say to that is, technically, the retreat is like any normal church retreat that takes place over a random (yet aptly timed) weekend. It's what unexpectedly happens to her during this retreat that is for me to know and you to want to know.**

**Also, **_**King **_**Philip, I'm glad you noticed the popcorn thing. Did anybody else notice that? You're right, the popcorn is a symbol of the new Sharpay discovering parts of her old self.**

**And lastly, **_**King Philip**_**, play nicely! I don't need you chastising my other reviewers! I actually like the fact that they ask questions, so you can just shove it and mind your own damn business!**

**Anyway, enough of my rambling. Thanks to all my other reviewers, and on with the story!**

* * *

Why Utah?

Friday

"What do you mean you won't be seeing me off on my church retreat? I'm going to be gone all weekend! Don't you want to be there to say good bye?" Gabriella whined to Troy after he had broken the bad news to her.

"Look, I told you. My dad has a killer practice planned for the whole day tomorrow and I can't get out of it, I already tried. Besides, you'll be back Sunday night and I promise you I'll be right there to welcome you home. Is that reasonable?"

"I suppose it'll have to work. It's just weird that you're dad has you practicing on a Saturday."

"Yeah," Troy looked down, not willing to look her in the eye. "All day."

* * *

Saturday

"Tell me again. Why did we have to drive an hour and a half to get to a mall? I'm sure Los Angeles has plenty of perfectly fine malls." Sharpay asked as she, Ryan and Troy walked through the rusted entryway of a rundown mall in eastern Utah.

"Uh, Shar? Honey, we live in Albuquerque," Ryan replied feeling less anxiety over this factual slip than he would have experienced two weeks ago.

"SHT! I know that! It's all these people here that didn't," Sharpay hissed while glancing around for anybody who may have overheard her brother. It appeared as though her cover hadn't been blown, so she pulled out her mega-sized pink studded sunglasses and placed them over her eyes. This way nobody would be able to recognize the fact that they don't recognize her.

Hating that Sharpay's question went unanswered, Troy decided to supply it for her. Wasn't it his and Ryan's personal responsibility to help with her memory, anyway? At least, that was the argument he used to allow himself to tag along on this exploratory trip into Utah without feeling guilty about lying to Gabriella as to his whereabouts. "We just didn't want you to feel pressured by classmates that'll be at the Albuquerque mall. This way you can experience the mall for the first time...again ...without anybody watching you."

"Wow, Troy! You just said two sentences to me without an ounce of disdain," Sharpay said with true astonishment.

"And then you had to speak," He replied, more annoyed at being called out on this fact than he proportionately should be.

With as much attitude that she could contain within her petit frame, Sharpay angrily slammed her hands on her hips and raised herself onto her tip toes in order to achieve equilibrium in height, but just as she was about to respond he turned and simply walked away from her. With a gasp, Sharpay quickly ran after him shouting "How dare you wa-". Unfortunately, her visibility handicap, which can be attributed to the sunglasses she decided to wear indoors, coupled with her preoccupation with winning the bicker war with Troy left her oblivious to the boy kneeling in her path to tie his loose shoelace. Before she knew what had happened she was sprawled across the floor as her Sunglasses went flying beneath a portable popcorn stand.

Troy heard the commotion behind him and he turned in time to see the fall. Without hesitation he ran to help Sharpay up off of the floor but Ryan, who had stayed by Sharpays side throughout their quarreling, was already at her aid. In an attempt to mask his apparent eagerness to help her, Troy quickly went to the boy who had been knocked from his kneeling position and helped him up instead. Once Sharpay was safely standing again, she busied herself with dusting off her clothes and looking around for her sunglasses.

"Its you!" She heard the unidentified boy gasp. Looking up from her primping, she saw that the scene was completed with a terrified look in this boys eyes and an accusatory finger pointing directly at her.

"Oh Ryan, I told you somebody would recognize me here."

Before Sharpay could revert back to reality and ask the boy why he was pointing at her with his mouth hanging open in such a rude manner he turned and sprinted away from the trio.

"What are the odds?" Troy said to Ryan as they proceeded to silently, yet dramatically, disputed over who would be the one to explain this situation to Sharpay.

Once the fleeing boy was gone from sight, Sharpay turned to the other two boys who had accompanied her to this mall and asked, "What was that about?". Ryan and Troy abruptly dropped their argument and turned to face her with their hands behind their backs and unnaturally innocent expressions on their faces.

"What was what?" Troy repeated in an effort to buy enough time to find something else to distract her with. "You know, I _love _your shoes."

"You really like them?" She exclaimed excitedly before taking her turn in pointing an accusatory finger at Troy as Ryan tip toed around the other two to end up behind Sharpay's back and out of sight. "Oh, no you don't, Troy Bolton! You already used that one on me once today. Not this time, now tell me what that was all about."

Behind Sharpay's back Ryan did a victory dance as Troy sighed and resigned himself to the task of relaying this particular story to Sharpay.

_

* * *

_

The edges of the scene is faded and the picture is discolored, as is the case in all memories. 

_Sharpay is in a large, black escalade barreling down a residential street. She is talking on her cell phone with her music blaring out her rolled down windows and Ryan is sitting in the passenger seat fiddling with a video camera. It was at the same time that she was rolling through a four-way stop that a young puppy broke free from his restricting leash and happily started to chase down a squirrel, yipping and barking the whole time. With no regard to any other object on, or off, the road, both puppy and Sharpay maintained their paths which, sadly, ended with puppies paw beneath her tire._

_Sharpay hangs up her cell phone and gets out of the car as Ryan starts to film._

"_Aw, Crap," She said in reference to the whining puppy lying motionless on the ground. Off in the distance the sound of a little boy's sobs and screams can be heard slowly approaching. As Sharpay was in a hurry to be somewhere, she opened her purse and pulled out a wad of cash. Throwing it down next to the puppy, she turned to the boy who had almost arrived and shouted "Sorry kid. Here's some cash. It should be enough to cover the vet bill." With that she hopped back into her SUV and speeded away._

* * *

"Oh my God, Episode 23 of my Weblog, 'Showing Generosity to Strangers'. Except, I didn't leave him enough money. And that next week his parents transferred him to a different school district," Sharpay finished the story for Troy. 

It was with this memory, fastened with the few other pieces of herself that she had discovered over the past two weeks, that she was finally led her to her ultimate conclusion:

Sharpay Evans was not a nice person.

* * *

Sunday

Troy was startled from his sleep by harsh knocking on his front door. _'How is it that I seem to be the only one woken by this?'_ he wondered while he groggily got up and answered the door.

"I've been thinking about this all night and I've decided I have to apologize to that boy." Sharpay announced as she brushed passed Troy and headed straight for his kitchen.

"What time is it?" He yawned as he closed the front door and following her, stumbling, further into his house. By the time he entered the kitchen, Sharpay had already put the coffee into the maker and was pouring the last few drops of water in before turning it on.

"It's already seven thirty. You really overslept today." She replied sitting down at the kitchen table. Troy joined her as his mind slowly processed the words she had spoken. Finally, "Seven thirty?! On a Sunday?" Sharpay nodded, but her thoughts had already moved onto her plans for the day. Thinking back onto this moment, Troy decided it was because of his early-morning, pre-coffee inability to process and respond to information in a normal capacity that caused him to agree to Sharpay's plan.

* * *

Two hours and five cups of coffee later, Troy was fully awake and on his way to Utah, for the second time that weekend, with Sharpay in the passenger seat. Sharpay had found where that boy's family currently lived and she was determined to apologize to him. 

"So, how did you find his address if it's unlisted?" Troy asked, not completely understanding or believing her story, though a little afraid to hear the complete truth.

"Oh, that's not really important. All that matters is that I have it and we're on our way there." She replied sternly. Troy didn't think this was a point to cross her on, so he wisely remained silent. Instead, he turned up the music, allowing Sharpay to review her "self-notes" notebook that he and Ryan had dictated to her while she was still in the hospital. They completed their journey in this manner. It wasn't long until they pulled into the driveway belonging to a small ranch with a matching dog house barely visible in the corner of the backyard.

"This is it," Sharpay whispered, more to herself than to Troy. Sharpay took a deep breath and suddenly it looked as though all her nerves had vanished. A big smile appeared on her face as she hopped out of the car and bounced up to the front door to ring the doorbell. This abrupt change in behavior surprised Troy. It was exactly how the old Sharpay would react to this situation, compartmentalizing her feelings and putting a mask on for protection. It was strange for Troy to see the new Sharpay do the same thing without even realizing her actions. With this random display of memory, Troy knew he should be happy to see parts of her past subconsciously showing up in her behavior. But he couldn't help to feel a twinge of disappointment instead. '_And that damn guilt keeps coming back,'_ he thought as the new emotion managed to stifle the disappointment.

These thoughts were quickly forgotten when he watched what happened with Sharpay at the front door. She waited patiently for the door to open and when it did a woman wearing both an apron and all of her flour appeared. She studied Sharpay for a second before it was clear that recognition had occurred. Her face hardened and she pointed to the car as she was obviously asking Sharpay to leave. Refusing, Sharpay stomped her foot and crossed her arms. It didn't take much for Troy to hear their words now because both women's voices had risen in antagonism.

"I JUST NEED TO APOLOGIZE TO HIM," Sharpay screamed.

"IT'S A LITTLE LATE FOR THAT MISSY," the woman yelled back, equally loudly. Not waiting for a reply, she took a step back and slammed the door in Sharpays face.

"Well, BETTER LATE THAN _NEVER_!" Sharpay shouted at the closed door, then quickly turned on her heal and stormed back to the car Troy was still sitting in. She sat down in the seat with a huff and slammed the door shut in anger.

"So. How did it go?" Troy asked, unsuccessfully trying to stifle his laughter.

"Oh, just shut it. I'm not leaving until I apologize to that damn kid." She replied still angry. Just then, childish laughter and puppy barking could be heard nearby. Both Troy and Sharpay, alerted by this noise, got out of the car to hear it more clearly. It sounded like it was coming from the backyard. Before Troy could stop her, Sharpay was shuffling ahead, ducking low every time she passed a window.

Once she got around the house she slowly approached the boy who was playing with his puppy. "Hey, kid," She hissed at him not wanting the boy's mother to be alerted to the situation and come out to shoo her away, again.

The boy turned around and inhaled a deep breath, about to scream once he saw her. Unfortunately for him, Sharpay was ready. She quickly ran forward and covered his mouth so that all that could come out were muffled whimpers.

"Stop it! I'm not going to hurt you, I just need to talk to you," She whispered forcefully into his ear. Whether he believed her or was simply too afraid not to, Troy will never know, but the boy stopped struggling and stood silently as Sharpay released her hand and took a step back.

"Now, I just wanted to tell you that-"

"MOM!" The boy screamed as he turned and ran toward his house. "MOM! SHE'S BACK!"

"Oh, for heavens sake," Sharpay sighed as she swiftly walked over to the boy's puppy who was happily chewing a bone and ignoring the screaming going on around him.

"Sharpay, is this really a good idea?" Troy asked hoping it wasn't too late to force some rational thought through her head, though he suspected it was.

"The kid brought it upon himself," she replied just before she grabbed the puppy who let out a surprised yelp and started running toward the street. "Oh, Sharpay," Troy sighed, rolling his eyes to the sky. _'Huh, It's not often you see hot air balloons anymore,'_ He thought fleetingly before being jerked back into reality with the boy's screaming.

"NO! NOT RUBY!" the boy screamed, turning his attention back to Sharpay once he heard the dog's yelp. He started chasing her and his puppy. Troy sighed again and then joined the other two in pursuit. He didn't want to be accused of aiding and abetting when this ended up in the court room. Upon hearing the boys' screams, his mother appeared in the back door just in time to see her son turn the corner around the house. "TYLER!" She screamed as she too followed after her son.

Because Sharpay was wearing heals and the boy was still young, their speeds were relatively equal. But Troy, who always wore sneakers, was much more practiced in this area of exercise. It didn't take him long to catch Sharpay and grab hold of her shoulders. She was acting on pure emotion and he needed to shake some sense into her.

"Sharpay, stop," he said firmly as he held her steady and looked her straight in the eyes. The boy and his mother were still approaching. "You are acting like a criminal. You just wanted to apologize to the boy so give him back his puppy and apologize, for Christ's sake."

Sharpay rolled her eyes and sighed but she inwardly knew he was right. She slowly turned around to face the boy and placed the puppy back on the ground. The puppy immediately ran towards the little boy who stopped and greeted his pet with enthused relief. But the mother didn't stop. She walked up to Sharpay with a furious air and started to lecture, "How dare you? This boy has done nothing-". Before she could finish Sharpay held up her hand as an indication to silence the woman. Too afraid of Sharpay's mental instability to refuse to concede, the woman instantly quit her rant.

Sharpay approached the boy and kneeled down next to him. "Hey, kid? I'm sorry I took your puppy. And I'm sorry I ran over him back in Albuquerque. And I'm sorry I didn't give you enough money to cover the vet bill." She turned to the boy's mother for that last part. The boy looked up at Sharpay and nodded, the woman didn't remove her gaze from her son.

Well, that was good enough for Sharpay. Her big smile reappeared as she straitened up and said to the small family "Tootles!" as she waved and bounced back to the car.

Troy cleared his throat, unsure of what he should do and very uncomfortable in his current situation. Without a sound, he followed Sharpay to the car and they both drove away without ever saying anything more to the boy or his family.

**

* * *

There you have it. Did you catch my allusion to HSM2? OK, to a deleted scene in HSM2, but HSM2 nonetheless...**

Well, it may not seem like much, but it is actually full of subtle hints and allusions as to what is to come (and what may be already happening...) 

**Can you guess what they are? – and then tell me in the review?**


	7. How to Make Friends

**Just to clear up, Sharpay's full memory isn't back, she just got that one memory back. She'll slowly recover single memories as her healing process continues. Also, I'm sorry for something Sharpay says, you'll know it when you read it. I did not mean anything by it, it is just supposed to display Sharpay's ignorance.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone.**

* * *

How to Make Friends

"And after the commercial break, we'll be getting the first look at the much anticipated Moroccan film set for Hot Air Balloon Down starring Vanessa Hudgens." The female host of _Access Hollywood_ said smiling fakely into the camera. Sharpay rolled her eyes and picked up the remote about to change the channel but was distracted by Billy Bush's next promo.

"But first," he said still laughing at the scripted joke that had come out of Nancy O'Dell's mouth. "The search for Ashley Tisdale continues. We will explore new speculation as to why she disappeared." The television showed a clip of the Los Angeles police force, machine guns brandished while flaunting their seldom used invasion tactics as they stormed an obviously abandoned barn yard.

'_It's a shame a girl that pretty can go missing while a skank like Vanessa can enjoy the fine eateries and celebrity treatment in Morocco,'_ Sharpay thought as she changed the channel to watch _The Real World_. During the last couple of weeks at school, Sharpay had not succeeded in participating in a complete conversation with any of her peers, excluding Troy and Ryan, of course. Figuring she was simply going about it in the wrong manner, Sharpay decided to study _The Real World_ in order to unlock the secret of successfully connecting with another person.

"This is the story of five strangers," the show began. Sharpay settled back into the couch with her notepad and a pen. She was ready to study normal human behavior.

* * *

"Come on Chad, she'll just have lunch with us. She's different now, the accident kind of – well – she's not who she was." Troy pleaded with Chad at his locker that next morning. 

"Fine, dude, but you do remember last summer, right? She does seem to have this magical ability that causes you to lose your head." Chad said trying to subtly talk Troy out of allowing Sharpay to eat lunch with them. He just knew it was a bad idea but when Troy wanted to do something, there wasn't much that could stop him.

Troy laughed, "Magical ability? Seriously, it'll work out, man, I promise."

Chad nodded but didn't return Troy's smile. He had a very bad feeling about this but he didn't have time to argue the point further. He said his goodbye to Troy and turned toward his next class, leaving Troy to finish putting his books away.

Troy looked over and watched Chad turn the corner. Just as he was about to refocus his attention back on his current task, he saw Sharpay on her way toward her own locker.

"Shar!" Troy called, slamming his locker door shut and jogging to catch up to the pink-clad girl. "Hey," he greeted as he fell into step next to her.

"Oh, hey! I'm glad you're here. I saw something on the way to school this morning but I can't remember what it's called, I was hoping you'd know. It was like a really big balloon high up in the air. I think it's propelled by something hot? Do you know what I'm talking about?" She asked speaking very quickly as she was in a hurry to get to her locker.

"You mean a hot air balloon?" Troy asked, slightly confused.

"Yes!" She replied excitedly jumping into the air. "I knew I'd just heard it yesterday!"

"Ok. Well, anyway, I was just wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with me and the rest of the group today?"

"Yeah, that'd be great!" Sharpay replied enthusiastically. Ryan had to make up a test at lunch that day and she had been fretting all morning about who she would sit with. She'd just settled on the bathroom stall when Troy approached her.

"Great! Well, I have to get to class, I'll see you later?" He said as he started to turn back to his locker for the second time that morning. "Oh, before I forget, I found this advertisement for a Head-Trauma Convention that I think you should go to. It was in the newspaper this morning." He explained as he handed her a newspaper clipping.

"Oh!" Sharpay exclaimed accepting the clipping as she tried to mask her surprise. This was an unusually considerate gesture. "Yeah, um, maybe. I'll think about it."

* * *

'_Wow,'_ Sharpay thought nervously as she saw what Troy meant by the 'rest of the group'. _'There are a lot of people here to befriend'_. She tightened her grip on her lunch bag, took a deep breath and straightened her posture as she slowly approached the lunch table. She had studied _The Real World_ for three hours the previous night; she was as ready as she'd ever be. 

"Wassup Nigga's?!" She proclaimed confidently to the group as she sank into her seat next to Troy. Everybody at the table quickly ceased their harsh whispering and instead stared angrily at Sharpay.

"What did you just say to us?" Chad demanded.

Sharpay looked at him with a curious expression. She was not expecting this angry of a response.

"Uh, Shar?" Troy leaned over, whispering so that the others wouldn't hear him. "I really don't think that word means what you think it does."

Sharpay turned her curious expression onto Troy. It worked on _The Real _World, maybe they just hadn't understood her. She tried again.

"Are you out of your mizzles? Just accept that I'm a little nizzle, for a bizzle, and we'll all be chizzle, yo."

"Oh, dear God!" Troy quietly exclaimed to himself shaking his head while looking down, unable to make eye-contact with who he was sure were now his _former_ friends.

"That's it," Chad yelled as he irately jumped up from his seat. "You're done here."

"Wait, wait, hold on, wait. Just . . . wait," Troy repeated as he imitated Chad's action and jumped from his seat. _'Lord, say something real, Troy!'_ he immediately chastised himself as he continued to repeat his words as he held Chad back. "She was joking. She was just nervous because she knows you guys don't like her and she couldn't control what was coming out of her mouth. Just chill, man, she wont say any more, I swear." Troy said, hoping the others would buy his excuse.

Sharpay looked up, _'They don't like me?'_. Despite this unpleasant revelation, Sharpay did catch Troy's hint and knew she had to do some swift damage control. She smiled at everyone's frowning faces as Chad managed to quell his anger and sit back down. Sighing heavily, Troy returned to his seat as well and prayed that Sharpay would inexplicably go mute within the next three seconds. Unfortunately, his prayer went unanswered.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the table as everybody quietly stared down at their own food. Knowing this awkwardness was her fault, Sharpay decided to be the first to break it.

"So, Taylor," Sharpay said cheerily, pretending the past conversation had never happened.

Taylor snapped her head up and fixed Sharpay with an incensed glare. "What?" She quipped.

"You got your hair cut, right?" Sharpay began.

"Yeah, I did," Taylor replied, smiling at the first person that day who had noticed her new style.

"Don't worry, I saw a girl on T.V. yesterday who had her hair cut just like yours and it looked fine once it grew out a couple inches!" Sharpay told her reassuringly. Taylor's smile quickly fell as she moved a self conscious hand to her hair and inadvertently flattened it in an attempt to make it look longer.

This was enough to bring up the heads of everybody at the table, again. They were all focused on Sharpay with their mouths open. Oblivious to this, Sharpay continued talking.

"Did you guys see the newspaper this morning?" She asked changing the subject.

"Actually, yeah," Zeke replied cautiously.

"I swear, it's like the media in America is subliminally supporting this nation's egotistical nature. Can you imagine being too oblivious to the world around you to know when you've insulted and subsequently lost all your allies? Instead of reporting on the world, we waste our lives reading about J.Lo and Ben's break-up, speculate on who's pregnant this week and all that other Hollywood crap!"

Zeke glowered at her. "My dad is the editor," he said coldly.

"And Ben and J.Lo split forever ago," Kelsi interjected.

Sharpay giggled nervously in response. She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but something about this lunch did not seem to be going well.

"So, um, Kelsi! Composer, right?"

Angry at herself for pulling the attention in her direction, Kelsi simply nodded as she dared a pleading glance in Troy's direction. Unfortunately, Troy had yet to remove his gaze from his lap.

"You should know. I don't think less of you because you have to stay behind the scenes. Just because you have no stage talent doesn't mean you are less important." Sharpay told her, hoping to turn this failing, one-sided conversation around.

"I hadn't actually thought that until now." Kelsi said quietly as her stature seemed to shrink to half its size.

The atmosphere at this small lunch table had turned from uncomfortable to frigidly quiet in an overwhelmingly short period of time. Aside from Sharpay and Troy, whose gaze was still concentrated in his lap, every face at that table displayed some form of astonishment. They had no idea how they were all belittled so effectively in a matter of minutes. They all sat there quietly as the last few insults were being replayed in their minds. Again, excepting Sharpay and Troy, a single fact seemed to dawn on them all. One person had, so far, managed to escape Sharpay's cross-fire.

Jason Cross sat in his chair, looking down into his lap and clutching his arms close to his body. It appeared as though he was trying to become invisible but everybody at the table had turned to face him. Looking up, he realized he had no choice but to face the action like everybody else had. Sighing, he turned to Sharpay who seemed to have become lost in thought. "Alright Sharpay, I'm ready. Hit me with your best." He said to her resolutely.

Snapping back to reality, Sharpay focused her attention on Jason. "I'm sorry Justin. I just remembered I have to talk to Mr. Gaudé about my history grade. We'll chat later, yes?" Without waiting for a reply, Sharpay smiled at the group as she got up and threw her lunch in the trash before exiting the cafeteria.

* * *

Finally, the long school day had come to an end. Sharpay giddily skipped to her locker to grab her books before she met Ryan in the auditorium. This was her big moment. This was the school auditions for _Lysistrata_. 

Sharpay and Ryan both took seats in the center of the auditorium. As Ryan had explained to her, they waited until the end to audition so as to show the rest of the student body how it should be done. According to Ryan, that was why they lost the roles to Troy and Gabriella in _Twinkle Towne_. They had, technically, not auditioned last. They were _second_ to last.

As the auditions wore on, Sharpay became increasingly nervous and she could swear something up on stage was squeaking. She asked Ryan if he heard it but he just shushed her and continued to sneer at the poor performance by their fellow drama club member, Alan.

"As always, thank you for your persistence, Alan." Ms. Darbus crooned. Looking down at the sign-up sheet, she continued, "Now, it looks to me like we are finally at our last auditionees. Ryan, Sharpay, show us what you've got."

Sharpay slowly approached the stage. (_Squeak)_ There was that squeaking, again! She knew she wasn't making it up. Ryan cleared his throat behind her and she realized she had stopped walking half-way up the stairs to the stage in order to listen for the squeaking. Taking a deep break (_Squeak)_ she ignored the stage light that seemed to be wavering and fastened her portable mike onto her shirt.

Taking her opening stance near Martha, who was standing in for the chorus (_Squeak_), she cleared her throat and felt the miraculous dissipation of her nerves. So Ryan was right, being on stage was second nature to her. With this small boost of confidence Sharpay began to (_Squeak_) recite her lines:

"Ah! If only they had been invited to a Bacchic revelling, (_Squeak) _or a feast of Pan or Aphrodite (_Squeak)_ or Genetyllis, why!..." Sharpay continued her line finding that she could successfully ignore the incessant squeaking that seemed to be coming from somewhere in her near vicinity. What she couldn't ignore was the light that she was standing under. ("...Except my neighbour Cleonice, whom I see approachinig yonder...") It kept trembling, causing the blinding light to waver in and out of her eyes. With blue spots circling her vision, Sharpay decided she needed to relocate her position on the stage.

Not wanting her movement to be obviously about the light, Sharpay decided to insert some improvisational action. Her dialogue was directed toward the aged chorus, so Sharpay turned to Martha and grabbed her hand and shoulder, acting as though she were providing support for an old woman. Then she slowly directed their movement downstage. Unfortunately, Sharpay's line ended right when they were both standing in the very spot Sharpay had begun.

Completely oblivious to this, Ryan began his rehearsed response. "Good day, Lysistrata..."

Sharpay let go of Martha and took a couple steps in Ryan's direction. There, out of the faulty spotlight and it looked like she was acting! Just then, the squeak that Sharpay was beginning to think was all in her head, noticeably increased in volume. So much so that Ryan actually faltered.

Clearing his throat and recollecting himself, Ryan raised his voice and continued with his line. Sharpay wasn't quite as disciplined. She, along with everybody else in the auditorium, looked over her shoulder in the direction the squeak seemed to be coming from. It was almost as though it came from the light she had just moved away from. In fact, the movement of the light seemed to be increase along with the louder volume of the squeak. As if it knew she was on the cusp of figuring it out, the stage light gave one final waver and, with a harsh final squeak, came crashing down.

Within the few seconds before the light made physical contact with the stage, three things managed to occur: 1) The audience loudly and dramatically gasped, all in unison, 2) Ryan allowed himself to be distracted enough to stop his acting and 3) Martha screeched loudly and dived out from under the heavy falling object. After all this, the light hit the stage with a deafening crash and sparks from the electrical connections spewed in every direction. Glass littered the floor and stage technicians cringed at the amount of money this had just cost them.

Everybody remained frozen where they were, too shocked by what they thought only happened in movies. Sharpay was staring at the very spot she had previously occupied, now destroyed by this stage light.

"You just tried to kill me!" She heard an angry voice accuse. Looking up, she saw that Martha was standing on the other side of the fallen light, pointing an indicting finger at her.

"What are you talking about?" Sharpay asked, thoroughly confused.

"You moved me to that spot because you knew the light was going to fall. You just tried to kill me!" Martha repeated.

"No I didn't, I was acting!" Sharpay exclaimed in a meek attempt to defend herself.

During this shouting match, Troy found his bearings enough to walk toward the stage. He, like everybody else, saw what Martha was proclaiming. He didn't want to believe it but the logic in his head was unwilling to defend her after being proven wrong so many times before.

"Sharpay, how could you do this?" Troy asked her quietly with disappointment permeating his being. "I honestly believed you had changed." He paused, hoping she would interject with an explanation. When she didn't say anything, he continue bitterly, "I guess I was wrong. An Ice-Queen never changes."

Without detecting the thick atmosphere he was about to enter, the head technician abruptly walked on stage and loudly announced, "For safety reasons I need everybody to clear the auditorium," before he, too, left to get his tools.

Sharpay remained where she was, returning Troy's gaze and feeling as though her world had stopped turning. She could sense all the other students grabbing their belongings and leaving the room but she couldn't seem to make herself mimic their actions. At one point Ryan touched her arm and asked her to follow but she didn't respond. She couldn't respond. He told her he'd wait in the hallway.

Troy watched Sharpay as her expression changed from shock to confusion and eventually to sadness. But when she remained silent, he forced himself to concede that she would not be able to supply the explanation he so desperately wanted her to have. Following the rest of the students, he dropped his gaze and slowly retreated into the hallway, leaving Sharpay alone in the large auditorium.

Once he was gone, Sharpay crouched down and buried her head in her arms, allowing herself to cry the tears that had been increasingly threatening since lunch time. She sobbed until she had nothing left and then took a few moments to collect her emotions that had fallen all around her. At last, she dried her eyes and was just about ready to bravely re-enter the world when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Hoping it was Troy coming back to apologize she placed a smile on her red, puffy face and quickly turned around, only to be forced to subdue her disappointment.

"It's O.K. Sharpay," Zeke said gently. "I believe your innocence."

Softened by his understanding, Sharpay gave the boy a faint smile and quietly said "Thank you, Zeke".

**

* * *

Eeek, its Zeke! Hahahah, just kidding...**

**Classes start again next week. I frown at that. But I successfully posted one more chapter before then. I smile at that!**

**Anyway, please please please review! Also, I'm thinking of changing the title (for purely selfish reasons, this title is too generic and wont show up when you do a search for it) and I would love any suggestions.**

**Thanks all!**


	8. In A Silent World

**So, I changed the title . . . hopefully I'll be satisfied now**

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot**

* * *

In A Silent World

Sharpay

Sharpay threw herself down, next to Ryan, on the family room couch in a huff of exacerbation. It was the day after the _Lysistrata_ auditions and it was evident that nobody had developed amnesia during the night. Not only were Troy and his so-called "group" refusing to acknowledge her existence, but the entire school seemed to be following suit. Sharpay had not anticipated the influence of East High's basketball team on the social environment.

At this thought Sharpay released another grunt of displeasure. Without a word Ryan stood up and left the room with Sharpay's eyes following him the entire way. She couldn't be certain, but she had a feeling Ryan was participating in her forced exile.

"Fine!" She yelled after him. "Go run and hide, you coward! You are supposed to be my brother, remember? You can't change that fact!" She had no way of knowing whether or not he had heard her but allowing herself to candidly voice her thoughts did wonders for her current level of irritation. With yet another grunt, she hoisted herself up off of the couch and returned to her room. If she had to be alone, she was going to be alone in private.

* * *

Ryan

Ryan had left on purpose. But it wasn't for the purpose of which Sharpay had accused him. He was simply tired of paying all his attention to Sharpay. He knew it wasn't rational, but his thoughts were sometimes overrun with possibilities other than what Sharpay was claiming to be true. One of which: could she be faking her amnesia? Of course not, he knew she wasn't (_'She's not _that_ good of an actress'_), but her accident did happen at a capriciously convenient time. He had just developed a small, yet dominant, sum of clout with the other students at East High. He had started developing into his own character, apart from Sharpay, and she had not been handling it well. Then she goes and loses her memory, consequently pulling all his attention back on her, yet again.

Frustrated with himself for thinking these thoughts, Ryan decided he needed to be separated from the entire situation in order to attain some serenity. He needed to clear his head, get some fresh air. Anything, as long as it did not involve his sister. With that decision, Ryan opened the back door, stepped outside, and took his first step on what he hoped to be a refreshing, tranquil walk.

* * *

Troy

With more effort than he was accustomed, Troy tossed his orange basketball into the air, only to watch as it sailed passed the backboard without making contact. He sighed and relaxed his stance. He could hide from his emotions through his game, but his game could never hide from his emotions. Finally relenting, he threw himself down in exasperation onto the grass. He knew he'd have to figure this out soon, otherwise feign illness every time his dad wanted to play basketball.

"Hey Troy," Coach Bolton called while jogging down the hill to meet his son at their half-court. "Want to play some one-on-one?" He had seen Troy struggling with his jump-shots and he didn't want that failure to be the end note. That was murder for sports players' confidence levels.

"Well, actually, I'm not feeling too well. I think I'm just going to go lie down," Troy quickly excused himself as he stood and retreated into the house and, after grabbing an apple, his room.

Troy pulled out his cell phone from his book-bag that was lying in the corner of his room and placed it on the bed next to where he rested. _'Maybe I should just call her'_. Something was telling him that there was more to the story that could be revealed by Sharpay, given she ever decides to tell it. _'Doesn't everybody deserve a second chance, anyway?'_ he reasoned with himself. Without hesitation, Troy grabbed his phone, flipped it open and searched for Sharpay's name in his contacts list. His thumb hovered over the send button as his overactive analysis of the situation started working on another angle. _'Sure, everybody deserves a second chance. But Sharpay passed her second chance long ago. Not to mention the second chance that she wasted on the stage. She could have said anything at that point and I probably would have believed it. But she didn't'_.

Troy closed his phone again and instead clutched it tight in his tense fist. _'On the other hand,'_ he thought _'She does have amnesia. In essence, her previous chances have been erased along with her memory. She can't be held liable for something she can't remember'_. Frustrated with his indecision, Troy groaned loudly and threw his phone back onto his bed with such force it bounced off and landed with a clank on the floor. Instead of recovering the phone, he remained on the bed, agonizing over his internal argument and his resolve which consistently and rapidly swapped sides.

* * *

Zeke

After thirty minutes of dallied pacing in front of the Evan's mansion, Zeke purposefully approached the front door. _'Why am I so nervous?'_ he asked himself in a lame attempt to force his emotions into reacting more rationally. But deep down, he knew why he was nervous and that simple fact succeeded in canceling any calm his self-chastising had produced. Despite all this, Zeke continued on his current path because _'Who am I to disregard the plan?'_ With a deep, relaxing breath and a stiff, shaking fist he knocked on the Evans front door.

* * *

Sharpay

Hearing the knock at her front door, Sharpay quickly called off the butler and, instead, answered it herself. She didn't completely understand the purpose of a butler answering their door when somebody within her household would inevitably have to meet with that door-knocker anyway. Besides, she was secretly hoping Troy would be on the other side, this time.

Sharpay reached the entrance hallway and paused by the mirror hanging on the wall for one final primp. Placing her hand on the knob she adopted a jovial grin on her face before she swung the door wide open.

When she saw that her inquirer was Zeke Baylor she didn't even endeavor to hide her contempt. Despite him being the only living being currently treating her hospitably, she allowed her face to fall into a hardened glare. She was not in the mood to mollify any allies.

"What do you want, Baylor?" She demanded, not intending to invite him in.

Slightly taken aback by her unexpectedly cold tone, Zeke faltered before he could collect himself enough to reply "I, uh, just thought you would want some company."

"You thought wrong." was her simple reply. Considering their conversation complete, Sharpay took a step back and attempted to slam the door in his face, but this time Zeke was prepared. He planted his foot in the frame, effectively reversing the door's current path of motion. Pushing it back open, Zeke shoved his way through the entryway while calmly saying to a stunned Sharpay "You didn't let me finish. I brought cookies–"

"I don't eat junk." Sharpay interrupted while adopting a defensive pose with her arms crossed over her chest and her glare ever present.

"–and celery and salsa for you. I took the liberty of picking out a few movies, as well–"

"I hate movies."

"–Besides, I know you know you can't reject me. I'm your only conduit back into the social world of East High."

"I don't need to be socially accepted."

With this last statement, Zeke threw his head back and gave a hearty laugh. When his amusement wore down he coolly replied "Now we both know that isn't true. You thrive on external validation. You need me, Sharpay."

Sharpay had no response to this. She knew it was, in small part, true. Surrendering her current position, she gave a curt nod then turned and walked back into the family room. Zeke took that as his indication to follow.

* * *

Troy

Back in Troy's bedroom he was slowly approaching his ultimate decision. He came to the conclusion that he wanted to call her. But desire was not a strong enough reason alone. His pride was what was holding him back. He shouldn't be the one debating this. After all, Sharpay is the accused.

Finally, he came to a decision.

Jumping off his bed, Troy gave his room a quick once over as he searched for his phone. Finally locating it, he pounced, hastily snatching it up and quickly dialed the number.

* * *

Sharpay

Sharpay jumped at the sound of her cell phone ringing. It was only a few days ago that she had found it and she had yet to use it. Excited, she scrambled to attain it in time; it seemed to have fallen between the cushions of the couch. Without even looking at the caller ID, she flung it open and slammed it against her ear.

"HELLO?" she yelled into the receiver, her enthusiasm causing her to momentarily lose control of her volume level.

Nobody responded.

"Hello? Who is this?"

Again, no response.

"Shar?" Zeke said, timidly. "I think that was a text message."

"A text message? Oh, of course. A text message, how silly of me," She looked at her phone's screen and sure enough it said '1 new txt msg', which came from an unavailable number. Curious, Sharpay opened the text message and read 'Check your e-mail, Ashley".

'_Ashley?'_ Sharpay thought _'They must have the wrong number'_. Slightly disappointed, she dismissed the text message and returned her attention to the movie.

* * *

Troy

"Hey dude, this really isn't a good time for me, if you catch my drift," Chad answered his phone when Troy called.

"Taylor there?" Troy asked, even though he knew the answer.

"Yeah. What do you need?" Chad replied trying to move the conversation along.

"I just wanted to know your opinion on what I should do about Sharpay. I can't decide on anything and its driving me absolutely batty." Troy said with the air of one releasing a load off his conscience.

Chad exhaled loudly. "You really want to know what I think?"

"Absolutely."

"I think you should do nothing. Sharpay is not your problem. She's hardly your friend. She is the one in the wrong. She is the one who should be stressing over this. You just need to chill and forget about her. Besides, you have a girlfriend, remember? Speaking of, where is Gabriella?" Chad asked.

"Oh. Shit." Troy said, instantly realizing that a) he forgot to pick her up from her church retreat and b) it's been almost a week and he hadn't noticed her absence. "Oh. Shit."

* * *

Ryan

Ryan had been out walking for nearly an hour. His emotions had run high for most of that time, but near the end they were finally tapering off. He was passing the church that he and Sharpay used to attend, about to turn around when he heard a strange noise. It was like a distant bird call, or a weak person praying for help.

The irony was not lost on Ryan, either.

Mindful that this could very well be a test from God, Ryan decided to investigate further. He jogged around the church, all the while listening for the noise to repeat itself. Standing at the back of the parking lot, facing the small abyss of woods, Ryan strained his ears. He was certain he hadn't imagined that noise.

"Somebody...please..."

There it was again! Ryan was sure the voice was coming from the woods. That last plea was much clearer than the first one. Determined to find this phantom voice, Ryan headed into the woods with confidence. These were a relatively small patch of woods, he just had to keep the person calling out to him and he would be able to find them.

"HELLO?!" he yelled.

"Help..."

Ah ha! Ryan directed himself in the general direction of the voice. Whenever he wanted to re-ascertain his direction, he would call out and the voice would always respond. Not even fifteen minutes later:

"Gabriella?"

Ryan stumbled into a small opening that appeared as though it had been turned into a make-shift camp site. Looking around, he could see some houses from a residential neighborhood through the trees. A huge tarp or _'Is that a hot-air balloon?'_ had been tied to the branches above, creating a temporary roof. Gabriella was sitting on a tree stump in the middle of the clearing, her arms were wrapped around her legs as she rocked back and forth shivering.

"Gabby, its seventy five degrees."

She didn't respond to him, she just continued rocking herself. Ryan watched (back and forth, back and forth, back and forth) unsure of what to do. He slowly approached her.

"Gabby!" he barked as he snapped his fingers in front of her face. She looked up at him curiously, and then her face clearly showed recognition. "Ryan?" She smiled as she stiffly stood and gave him an eager hug. "It's been so long. However did you find me way out here in the wilderness?"

Ryan chuckled and then softly responded, "Let's just get you home." Gabriella nodded in agreement.

**

* * *

Did **_**you**_** notice Gabriella's absence? Don't worry, she's supposed to be acting kind of ridiculously here.**

**So, this story is the first time I've ever attempted to write creatively and I've just now realized that I think very visually. So, I am REALLY sorry if anything I'm trying to describe is confusing. I think I try to compensate for that by explaining things A LOT and now I'm worried it's too wordy. I don't know. My own insecurities, I guess.**

**I finally know exactly where I'm going with this story. I'm not gonna lie, I started it without an ultimate plan. So, if you think this chapter is pointless, you're wrong! Hahah... Think Harry Potter. The most insignificant sentences would turn out to shape the entire next book. Or something like that. Of course, I'm not doing it quite as masterfully...**

**Also, my semester started this week and my classes are murder, so my exhaustion and stress may have temporarily quelled my creative prowess. **

**Despite that, please REVIEW! **


	9. Head Trauma Convention Part 1

**This chapter ended up being, like, eleven pages, so I had to split it in two. But I tried to cut it off at a relatively conclusive point of the chapter so that it won't seem too abrupt when you're reading.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical**

* * *

Head-Trauma Convention Part 1

Sharpay was sitting silently in her family room with her laptop turned on and poised for an internet search, but she seemed to have forgotten her purpose. Instead, she was staring at the opposite wall with a distant expression in her eyes. This was the scene that greeted Ryan when he tried to approach Sharpay for the first time since he'd walked out on her. Timidly, Ryan stepped toward the couch and slowly lowered himself onto the cushion next to Sharpay. She didn't acknowledge his presence. She just continued staring at the blank wall.

Unsure of himself, Ryan swallowed loudly before commencing his rehearsed speech. "Shar? I'm sorry." He had more to say but that one phrase took so much effort, he had to recuperate before continuing. Unfortunately, Sharpay beat him there.

"No you aren't," she said harshly.

"What?" he asked, just as harshly.

Taking a deep breath, Sharpay transferred her gaze from the wall to Ryan. "You aren't sorry. And I'm not sorry, either. But, you know what? It's OK. You did what you had to do in order to keep yourself from murdering me. I understand that. You don't have to apologize. I called you filthy words behind your back to keep from saying them to your face and I'm not going to apologize. It was how we felt at the time." By this point, the twins were matching glare for glare.

Suddenly, with a huge grin on his face and a jubilant expression in his eyes, Ryan threw his arms around Sharpay and squeezed her tight. "That's my sister!" He exclaimed happily. With one last squeeze, he released Sharpay and immediately vaulted himself toward the DVD collection. "Let's celebrate this breakthrough with a movie," He suggested while running his index finger over the DVD titles, looking for his favorite.

"Whatever," Sharpay mumbled, pulling her laptop closer to her. She'd just remembered why she'd pulled it out in the first place. Regardless of the fact that the text message from the other day was not meant for her, its message was still successful in reminding her about the existence of e-mail. With that in mind, Sharpay had to first remember her e-mail address and password without bothering Ryan, considering they'd just now made-up. After pulling up her e-mail log-in screen, Sharpay sat back to consider the possibilities.

"Do you want to watch anything specific?" Ryan asked, still looking through the DVD's.

"I don't care," Sharpay responded dully. She couldn't remember any film, anyway, so they were all new to her.

She'd had the address and password written down in her 'self notes' that she'd taken, with help from Troy and Ryan, while in the hospital, but she'd carelessly left that notebook in Troy's car after their second trip to Utah. If it weren't for the fact that Troy and company still had a mandated exile on her, she'd simply ask him for the notebook back, but Sharpay thought it better to let hot tempers simmer down before inadvertently enflaming them again. So, now she was racking her brain, attempting to recall the address and password from memory.

"How about 'Ice Princess'?" He suggested, looking back at his sister for affirmation.

Sharpay stiffened her posture in attentiveness as her eyes lit up, bringing her features to life after the dull, thoughtful expression she'd previously settled in. "That's it!" She loudly exclaimed while excitedly typing 'Ice.Princess' into the e-mail section. _'Now I just need the password,'_ she thought, falling back into the couch, brows furrowed in intense concentration.

Ryan smiled along with Sharpay's initial display of enthusiasm, but he quickly exchanged his smile for trepidation when her energy so suddenly disappeared. Shaking off his unease, he placed the disc into the player and turned the TV on. "This movie is absolutely fabulous. You are going to love it." Ryan said as he returned to the couch playing with the remotes, getting the movie to the main menu and eventually to play.

Snapping her head up, Sharpay quietly repeated "Fabulous?". Ryan nodded, though he wasn't completely paying attention to her behavior, anymore. Sharpay considered the word, then with the same amount of enthusiasm she'd had with her first discovery, she shouted "FABULOUS!" and threw her arms up in victory. Ryan gave her a quizzical look, but she just shook her head in response to his silent question and coolly lowered her arms to type the word into her password section.

Sharpay watched as her computer screen slowly loaded the page. A lot of the e-mails that hadn't been opened yet were from what she assumed were her frequently visited retailers before her accident. With no mind to buy anything, Sharpay quickly and carelessly deleted those messages, leaving her with just two unknown senders.

One was from Youtube Service. Sharpay recognized that from her weblogs. Seeing that it was another comment on her last weblog, she decided to start with this e-mail:

_Subject: New Message – "On The Run"_

_From: King Philip _

_To: Sharpay Evans _

_following message is in response to your Webvideo "On The Run": _

_Hey Sharpay_

_I haven't heard from you in a while. Please tell me you've just gone dark and not that the cult leaders found you. In fact, I know they didn't find you because you are too brilliantly evasive. I'm just worried. Whenever you get a chance, please please please send something my way so I know you're OK. I'm just worried about you. And Ryan._

_Also, I wanted to remind you that my offer still stands. If you need a safe place to hide, my parents left me this huge mansion in Los Angeles that I have no use for. It has great security and I'll be there to help, so you can finally relax._

_This is an automated e-mail. Please, do not reply._

Sharpay couldn't help but to smile as she read the message. It was a shame, really, that all the sacrificial cult weblogs were fake. King Philip sounded like he really wanted to help. Oh well. Ignoring his plea for a response, Sharpay closed out the message and proceeded to investigate her next e-mail. This one was from A. Friend and it read like this:

_Subject: This is a Threat_

_From: A. Friend _

_To: Sharpay Evans _

_Ashley,_

_The game is up. We've found you. And if you don't come forward to the media, we're going to kill you. _

_A. Friend_

Face falling, Sharpay deleted this message as well. _'What is it with this damn Ashley girl?'_ Sharpay thought with irritation. She was really hoping for some interesting e-mail, but it all turned out to be junk. Closing her laptop, she placed it on the floor and tried to turn her full attention to the movie.

* * *

"Oh crap!" Sharpay suddenly exclaimed. The movie was almost over but she hadn't really been paying attention. Mostly, she was staring at the screen while thinking about her life. All two and a half weeks that she could remember, in any case. 

"What's wrong?" Ryan asked, reluctantly shifting his focus.

"I forgot about the Head-Trauma Convention tonight!"

"So?" Ryan couldn't see the problem here.

"It's just, I made plans with Zeke yesterday and I can't cancel on him. He's my only friend!" She explained sounding unusually pathetic.

Before Ryan had a chance to respond, the sound of Sharpay's cell phone ring could be heard, slightly muffled. Scrambling to find it, Sharpay thrust her hand into the cushions of the couch, figuring it had fallen in there again. It didn't take much for her hand to smack against a solid object and her fingers to curl around the still ringing device. Without looking at the caller ID, she opened the phone and slammed it against her ear, shouting "HELLO?"

Ryan had watched this entire process with amusement, but when he heard her shouted greeting he had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing.

Sharpay ignored Ryan as she was too busy talking on her cell phone for the first time. In her ear piece she heard a soft chuckle before Zeke replied "Hey Shar. Phone in the couch again?"

Sharpay laughed, trying to mask her embarrassment and confidently replied "Zeke! I was just talking about you! Yeah, it seems to be an epidemic." She'd started to cringe before she had even finished saying the words. That hadn't made any sense! Ryan snorted, unable to hold his laughter down anymore. He hastily ducked out of the room after Sharpay violently swatted at his arm to shut him up.

"Right," Zeke replied slowly. "Anyway, I'm calling about tonight. I am _really_ sorry, Shar. I feel like such a prick doing this to you, but I'm going to have to ask for a rain check."

'_Rain check?'_ Sharpay glanced out of her family room window at the clear blue skies above. _'What the Hell?'_. At the risk of sounding ignorant, Sharpay cautiously asked "Rain check?"

"Yeah. I completely forgot, I had already promised my boss that I'd work tonight. I am _so_ sorry, you have no idea," He replied sounding almost as though he were about to cry.

"Zeke, it's OK. Don't worry about it." Sharpay replied as reassuringly as she could, in spite of her disappointment. "We'll just talk tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yeah," he replied with a heavy sigh. "Good-bye, Shar."

Sharpay slowly closed her phone as she called out "It's safe to come back, Ryan."

Ryan reentered the room much calmer than he had left it. Sitting on the couch again, he asked with true curiosity "What'd Zeke want?"

"He had to cancel." Sharpay replied with disappointment evident in her voice. "Looks like I'm going to that Convention after all."

* * *

"Ryan, I'll be ready in five minutes!" Sharpay called through her doorway and down the hall, mascara brush in hand. She was getting ready for the Head-Trauma Convention, but was running very late. "Ryan?" She called again since she hadn't heard him respond. Again, nothing. Starting with an eye roll, Sharpay ran down to his room and burst through the closed door in a huff, only to find the room empty. She was about ready to embark on a mansion-wide search when she remembered – "Cell phone!" 

She ran back to her room and grabbed her phone off of her night stand. She quickly typed in Ryan's number then put the phone to her ear as she returned to her vanity table to finish making up her other eye.

"What's up Shar?" he answered on the third ring.

"Where in Gods name are you? I'm almost ready to go!" She screamed into the phone.

"Go? Go whe – oh, crap. I'm so sorry Shar. I completely forgot about the convention. I'm not home right now. Maybe one of the parents can take you?" he suggested, feeling slightly guilty at feeding Sharpay this false hope. There was absolutely no way their parents would make time for one of their children.

"Maybe," Sharpay replied doubtfully. "I'll give it a try"

"Good luck," Ryan said before hanging up.

Sharpay closed her phone, pondering the attitudes of her parents. Her dad was clearly an important man. She'd hardly spent any time with him these past couple of weeks, so she didn't know much about his personality. And her mom was nice enough, though maybe a little self-centered. She decided she'd try her mom first, and she knew exactly where to find her.

* * *

Quietly tapping her finger on the door of the guest-entertaining room, Sharpay opened it slightly and peaked through. 

"Sharpay, honey!" her mother exclaimed with laughter in her voice and a glare in her eyes. "Don't just hover in the doorway, come in and greet the rest of the society women."

Suddenly nervous, Sharpay stepped completely into the dimly lit room and looked around. All around her were perched, silicone enhanced, sprayed on tan, middle aged women, all holding a martini glass in their freshly manicured, jewel encrusted fingers. "Hello, everybody," Sharpay said in a small voice accompanied with an awkward hand wave. A few of the women gave Sharpay curt nods or icy smiles, but the majority studied her appearance before blatantly averting their eyes.

"Well? Don't dawdle. What do you want?" her mother asked impatiently.

"Um, well, I was hoping you could give me a ride to this Hea – um, I mean, just convention, this convention that I'm attending in town?" Sharpay asked with a slight stutter. She'd almost forgotten that her mother didn't like her to mention her amnesia.

Mrs. Evans threw her head back in an un-ladylike cackle, "Oh Sharpay, dear. I thought you were serious!" she laughed then drained her martini glass. Heading towards the bar, she continued, "You know perfectly well that James has tonight off."

"James?" Sharpay asked quietly.

Turning sharply to face Sharpay again, Mrs. Evans furiously barked "Yes. James. The driver. James. You know who I am talking about!" It wasn't a question.

"Yes. Of course, mother." Sharpay replied curtly, straightening her posture and matching her mother's glare. "I'm sorry to have interrupted your evening. Good night ladies." She then turned on her heal and exited the room.

Completely disheartened, Sharpay decided to skip asking her dad all together. She was not in the mood to be humiliated by family members, again. Instead, she just walked right past his half-open office door ("And then she _stepped _on the ball!") and returned to her room. But Sharpay was not one to give up that easily, she just needed new tactics.

Overlooking her earlier plight at caution, Sharpay picked up her phone and dialed the one number that she knew she could coerce.

* * *

Troy was watching the news in his family room when he heard his phone ringing in his bedroom. Eagerly leaping over the back of the couch, he tore down the hallway and into his room to get to his phone. He saw Sharpay's name on the screen and had to quickly chastise himself for his excitement. Taking a deep breath, he wiped the smile from his face and opened the phone answering with a cold "Hello?"**

* * *

A few things...**

**This definitely wouldn't let me put an e-mail address into the text...**

**Anyway, I realized that Sharpay had called Ryan on his cell phone in chapter 2. But she hadn't used her cell phone till last chapter. My explanation (excuse?) is that in chapter 2 she'd been calling from a LAN line that was in her closet...so she hadn't found her cell phone yet.**

**I don't have a Youtube account, so I don't actually know what the e-mails look like when people comment. Just go with it...**

**Also, I added a line in chapter 5 to mention her reading her "self notes" notebook while in the car. I really like my chapters to contain references and clues to past and future chapters, which is why I ended up adding that line in. It doesn't change that chapter at all, so you don't have to go back to read it if you don't want to.**

**I want to thank Ascii27 for being a wonderful writer and an amazing person. You rock!**

**And**

**Please Review, everybody!**


	10. Head Trauma Convention Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical, Alias, or 24.**

* * *

_Troy was watching the news in his family room when he heard his phone ringing in his bedroom. Eagerly leaping over the back of the couch, he tore down the hallway and into his room to get to his phone. He saw Sharpay's name on the screen and had to quickly chastise himself for his excitement. Taking a deep breath, he wiped the smile from his face and opened the phone answering with a cold "Hello?"_

* * *

Head-Trauma Convention Part 2

Sharpay was waiting on her front porch when Troy's beat-up, old truck reluctantly pulled into her driveway. _'How can a truck look reluctant?_' Sharpay thought as she picked up her pet dog, Boi, and quickly shuffled in her high heals to the car. She had barely opened the door when Troy growled "Absolutely not!"

"I'm sorry?" She asked indignantly.

"You are _not_ bringing that ugly mutt in my car! He'll poo all over the place!"

"Oh please, it's not like you'll be able to smell the difference."

Troy just stared at her with a hardened glare.

"Fine. Whatever." Sharpay sighed with an eye roll. She returned Boi to her house and then shuffled back to Troy's car. He silently backed out of her driveway and started to head down her street.

"So, do you know how to get there?" he asked after he'd made it onto the main road and they were directed toward the freeway.

"I'm sorry, I must not have introduced myself," Sharpay replied sarcastically. "I have amnesia."

"And that stops you from looking up directions?"

"I'm not the one driving, am I?"

"That has nothing to do with this!"

Too nervous about the convention to fully enjoy this fight, Sharpay turned the radio up and threw the newspaper clipping that had the advertisement into Troy's lap. They were stopped at a light, allowing Troy enough time to read the building name and street address from the article. It was to be held in downtown Albuquerque, which meant they didn't have too far to drive. But it started in –

"Fifteen minutes?! Why did you wait so long to call me? We're going to be late for this!" He yelled. Unfortunately, the music was still turned up and Sharpay hadn't heard any of the words he had spoken. She'd just seen the angered look on his face. She gave him a disgusted glare and then turned to look out her window, ignoring him.

Troy growled and changed the music station. He _hated_ country.

"HEY!" Sharpay screeched. She immediately reached over and changed it back.

This prompted another glare from Troy and another station change.

"FINE!" Sharpay yelled over the music. She turned it off and then said petulantly, "We'll just have to listen to nothing."

"Fine." Troy muttered.

An icy silence fell between them with Troy repeatedly glancing over and exhaling in an annoyed manner and Sharpay crossing and re-crossing her arms. They both had callous words they wanted to say to the other, but neither wanted to be responsible for beginning the confrontation.

Unable to listen to the deathly silence any longer, Sharpay was the first to break, "Why are you acting like this, anyway?"

"Why am _I _acting like this?" Troy repeated her question incredulously. "You know, Copernicus called, it turns out you _aren't_ the center of the universe!"

"I don't even know what that means." Sharpay scoffed as she crossed her arms again and looked out her window in stubborn defiance.

"Why should you?" Troy countered. "It's not like you knew what it meant before the amnesia."

Snapping her head around to glare at Troy, she vociferated in dismay "Are you calling me dumb?"

"Well, I'm sure as hell not calling you smart!"

Sharpay geared up for an intense comeback but a low flying helicopter with a man hanging from the extended ladder prevailed in distracting her. It seemed to have distracted Troy, too. He slowed down ("Wonderful, now we're going to be even later"), which turned out to be a fortunate choice because the two side-by-side semi trucks in front of them squealed to a sudden halt.

Completely enthralled with this entire scene, the oddity of it all not even registering with the twosome, they suspended their argument in order to watch the operation in front of them.

As the helicopter lowered itself near the semi's, the hanging man jumped off and landed cleanly on top of them. Pulling out a gun, he held it low and proceeded to jump off of the trucks and run towards a nearby building as he shouted to what appeared to be himself. As he was running away, the helicopter finished its decent onto the tops of the two semi trucks as if this were always where helicopters chose to land.

"Where did that guy run to?" Sharpay asked with rapt captivation like they were simply sitting in front of a television screen watching _Alias_.

"It looks like he ran towards – Oh my God." He quietly cut himself off. There was a deafening explosion coming from about a block away, in the direction that Troy and Sharpay were headed. In fact, it seemed to have come from the exact building to which they were headed. The air was suddenly filled with dust and large debris particles and the red glow of a hot fire could be seen coming from the building that had just one minute ago held the Head-Trauma Convention.

Troy and Sharpay gave each other stunned glances before they both jumped out of the car and ran towards the exploded building. Sharpay was closing in on the scene when she felt somebody grab her arm and yank her back. About to yell at Troy for touching her, she spun around and opened her mouth but was cut off by the man who had jumped onto the semi trucks.

"My name is Jack Bauer and I'm a federal agent," he hoarsely whispered to her intensely, standing within her personal-space bubble. "I'm normally stationed in Los Angeles, but we've tracked a man who we believe was hired to kill the tweeny-bopper pop star Ashley Tisdale. We've set up a perimeter and you are going to have to trust me. We will catch this guy. Excuse me," Jack pardoned himself as he touched his ear and shouted "Yeah, Morris, what is it?"

A little confused as to why this man had told her everything about his mission, Sharpay nodded her head and then looked toward the building where she could see armed men forming a blockade on only one corner of the decimated building.

"Ok, upload the picture to my PDA." Jack shouted, startling Sharpay and pulling her attention back to him. Jack pulled out his PDA and looked at whatever picture he had just received. After studying it for a moment, he returned Sharpays gaze with an intensely curious expression.

Feeling uncomfortable under his scrutiny, Sharpay decided to distract him with a question. "So, that's your perimeter?" She asked dubiously, referring to the one corner of random uniformed men. Looking towards the unmanned side of the building, Sharpay saw two people dressed in all black with masks covering their faces. They were running toward a black, tinted-windowed Suburban. Before the door to the Suburban had even closed, the car was screeching away, leaving tire marks on the cement. "Was that one of your operatives?" Sharpay asked after not receiving any answer to her first question.

Seeing the Suburban driving away, Jack touched his ear and started yelling to himself again as he ran toward an idled military vehicle "CTU, the hostage has breached the perimeter! I am following in pursuit. Agent Doyle, do you copy..." By this point he had gotten into the Humvee, so Sharpay could no longer hear what he was shouting. But one phrase was still resonating in her mind.

'_...normally stationed in Los Angeles...'_

Troy came up behind Sharpay and protectively placed his hand on her back. "Are you alright?" He asked breathless from the shock of the scene.

'_...normally stationed in Los Angeles...'_

"Did you find out what this is all about?" He was staring intently at Sharpay's distant expression, wondering what was going through her head. _'If she had been at that convention on time...'_ Troy couldn't even finish the thought.

"Who was that guy, anyways?" Troy just couldn't stop asking questions. He knew something was going on with Sharpay but he felt lost when it came to helping her. He hated that they had been fighting and that, even though it had only been a few days, he had already forgotten how to lead her through rough situations. Of course, he hadn't been anticipating _this_ rough of a situation.

"He's normally stationed in Los Angeles." She whispered. She then swiftly turned and ran back toward Troy's car shouting over her shoulder, "My notebook is still in your car, right?"

"Wait. What?" Troy asked before he chased Sharpay back to his car.

When Sharpay arrived, she yanked open the door and immediately grabbed at anything that was lying on the car's floor. When it wasn't her notebook, she rashly threw it behind her, not caring where it landed. Finally, underneath the passenger seat, she found her notebook. She furiously flipped through the pages until she found the one she was looking for.

Wheezing from the unexpected wind-sprints, Troy finally joined Sharpay at his pile of garbage and clothing that was now lying on the street corner. "Sharpay!" He said sternly. "You have to tell me what is going on."

"Listen to this," she whispered. She then started to read from her notebook, "About two years ago, Zeke Baylor transferred to East High from L.A. He instantly liked me but I never gave him the time of day."

"Yes?" Troy was confused as to what this had to do with any of the previous events. "That's what Ryan and I told you while you were still in the hospital."

"Yes! But, that's not the point." Sharpay faltered, exasperated with herself for being unable to express herself clearly to Troy. "I remember something!"

_

* * *

_

October twelfth. Two years ago. 

_Sharpay was walking down a hallway in East High. Her hair was curly and flowing freely and she had gold eye-shadow to match her very gold pants. She was drawing everybody's eyes but nobody more than the new, lost looking boy, Zeke Baylor._

_Stopping at her locker, Sharpay gazed into her mirror, studying her make-up. Her serenity was immediately broken by the voice of one who didn't know any better._

"_Hi there!" he said enthusiastically. "You are really pretty. My name is Zeke, what's yours?"_

"_Apathetic," Sharpay sardonically replied as she slammed her locker and whipped around to glare Zeke in the eyes. Arms crossed, Sharpay started to lecture, "Hey, Geek, was it? This is how it's going to work. You are going to put your head down, turn around, and walk away. And we are never going to repeat this conversation, or attempt any new ones. Ever."_

_Zeke laughed good-naturedly. "I get it. You're playing hard to get. Ok, I can play along. I don't want you. I'm just going to talk to you until you want me. Want a cookie?"_

"_Oh my goodness, you're annoying!" Sharpay exclaimed, giving the cookies a disgusted squint. She threw her hands up and dramatically attempted her exit. Unfortunately, Zeke wasn't interested in finishing this conversation. Running after her, he started to talk about himself, not caring whether she was listening or not._

"_So, I'm an army brat. My dad is normally stationed in Los Angeles, but apparently something big is expected to go down here. So here we are! You know, I really like your hair and make-up. You should wear it like that every day!"_

"_Are you sure you aren't gay?" Sharpay was a little confused as to why this new kid was telling her everything about his life. And now she could never wear this hair and make-up combination ever again._

"_Anyway, my dad expects me to join the army, just like him, but I'm not sure I want to. I mean, I'd love to work for the government, or someone with a lot of money, but I don't think I want to do something that strict. You know? I'd like to get these missions done my own way. I think that would be wicked!"_

"_Look! Loser, leave me alone!" Sharpay finally broke._

_Zeke looked at her with wide eyes and a startled expression. "Um, I have to go to class, anyway. I'll talk to you later, Apathetic."_

"_Whatever," Sharpay mumbled as she strutted away from Zeke and into her class._

* * *

"Troy? Why do you think I just now recalled this particular memory?" Sharpay mused. They were sitting on the hood of Troy's truck, which was still sitting in the middle of the now police barricaded street. Sharpay had just finished the story and she couldn't shake the feeling that this memory came from more than just that one phrase.

'_...normally stationed in Los Angeles...'_

"I don't know, Shar." Troy sighed, lying back onto the windshield and staring up at the stars. Sharpay watched him think for a moment and then lied down next to him. Troy felt her shiver and he instinctively put his arm around her shoulder for comfort. She responded by snuggling closer and placing her head in the crook of his neck.

"I just have such a bad feeling, you know?" She continued, trying to think of a rationalization for this ominous feeling. Troy nodded his head in understanding but remained silent. He could feel the augur as well, but he didn't want to worry Sharpay any more than she already was.

Not wanting to go to their respective homes just yet, they continued lying on Troy's truck, drinking in each others strength. All around them were police and fire fighters, but the pair was oblivious to their surroundings. All they could focus on was suppressing their fear and enjoying the others company. Because in the back of Sharpay's mind, she could hear a nagging voice reminding her that this moment would not follow her into subsequent moments. But for now, it was good enough.

**

* * *

In case you're like Sharpay (and before last semester, I definitely was), Copernicus is the guy who discovered that the Earth was not the center of the universe and he suggested that, maybe, it was the Sun.**

**I know it's been taking me a little longer to update. Sorry. I'm trying. That letter from, like, a month ago, has inadvertently opened up the lines of communicate between my parents and I and I'm not sure any of us are too thrilled about that. But, progress is life, is it not?**

**So, you may want to read the first four paragraphs of the chapter 'Re-entries' to refresh your memory on part of the significance of her memory. It's not why they have that ominous feeling, but it is why she doesn't wear that hair and make-up combination any more.**

**Also, my roommate and I just had a _24_ marathon, which is why Jack made it into the chapter. And, for anyone who's watched _24_, is the whole perimeter concept not ridiculous?!? I'm not sure perimeters have **_**ever**_** worked, and yet they keep making them! Why not just skip that step and let the enemy escape? It'll be less work! Or, how about you set up the perimeter BEFORE you announce to the world that you have arrived?! I mean, honestly, **_**I**_** could be a better federal CTU agent, and I've never even held a gun!**

**Anyway, I'll stop boring you with my ramblings and allow you to get to the BEST part! The REVIEW!**


	11. His Story

**I just realized that I haven't answered any review questions in the beginning of my chapters in a while. Mostly because King Philip isn't reading my story anymore and he asked the majority of the questions. In case you're wondering, King Philip was my brother. He got shipped off to Iraq on Christmas of all days (I'll spare you my opinions on that subject, though you can probably guess) so he isn't reviewing my story anymore, and asking any (I'll admit it) prompted questions. Just know that if you are ever curious – on anything – you can just ask me. Cause I know the weirdest things about my stories. I'll know the back stories to any unexplained reference, and I know what's going on with the other characters that aren't currently in the scene and I know any unvoiced thoughts. I know. I'm weird. But, sometimes I think that kind of information is fun. No? Just me? Ok.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing – not even where I get my inspiration**

* * *

His Story

Troy looked at the clock just as the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. Jumping up with a determined expression on his face, he ran out of the room and down the hall. He had barely spoken to Gabriella at all today and he was finally starting to feel guilty. It was her first day back after all; he had to make some sort of effort. Spotting her crouching in front of her locker, he approached from behind as quietly as he could. Putting his hands over her eyes he adopted a falsetto voice and sang "guess who?"

Giggling, Gabriella stood up and turned around, flashing her trademark cutesy smile. Troy returned with a similar smile but cringed on the inside. _'Did she always act so fake?'_ he wondered as she picked up her newly filled book bag and closed her locker door. Putting his arm around her shoulders, Troy started to slowly walk down the hallway with his girlfriend.

"So, we haven't talked in ages!" he exclaimed with more fervor than he actually felt. "Tell me what happened on this illustrious church retreat."

Gabriella giggled. "My, this is a long story. But you will never believe what I discovered while lost in the wilderness!"

"Weren't you just in the Country Club's five acre park?"

"Whatever. You are absolutely going to flip when I tell you this," she repeated.

Sensing that Gabriella really wanted to tell her story, Troy finally allowed her the prompt she was fishing for. "OK, tell me everything. And start from the beginning."

"Well, since you asked," She said with mock reluctance. "It started on the bus, before we even left the church parking lot. I decided to sit next to that girl I was telling you about. You know, the one who has yet to accept Jesus Christ. By the way, you'll be glad to know, I think I finally got through to her. I spent the entire bus ride telling her how much better her life would be if she would just commit. She even started nodding along to what I was saying. I really think she took it heart–"

'_Wow, I forgot how awful she is at telling stories,'_ Troy thought with a sigh. Fortunately, Gabriella was so in to telling her story that she didn't hear his bored exhale. Troy turned his head and allowed his mind to wander. Seeing an old flyer advertising the _Lysistrata_ auditions, he thought back to that day and replayed the events in his mind for what seemed to be the hundredth time. That day never seemed to make sense to him. Why had that stage light fallen? And, if it wasn't Sharpay's fault, whose was it?

Gabriella was still talking. "Then we saw that it was red and I was like 'Devil color!' but it turns out, that wasn't the point she was trying to make. In any case, I started this huge discussion on–"

'_I wonder why Shar missed homeroom today,'_ Troy thought, pushing the auditions memory to the side. He had been subconsciously glancing down the crossing hallways in search of her every time they passed one. She had been at lunch so he knew she was in school today. _'I hope she's not avoiding me. No, there must be something wrong. I have to talk to her.' _He concluded. He could still sense the cloud of foreboding from the previous weekend and it was causing him to act more paranoid than normal. _'She has no right to hide from me, I'm in on this, too!'_ he could feel himself getting more irritated with each passing thought. _'I was scared as hell when that building blew up and she was supposed to be in it! I have to talk to her.'_

"–And so, we finally decided on pink–Ouch!" Gabriella's bag fell to the floor as she stumbled from her collision with a hurried Sharpay. Ryan, who had been following closely behind his sister, quickly bent down and picked up the bag for her.

"Hey! Watch where you're going shorty!" Sharpay spit out, obviously annoyed with the brunette.

"I'm. Sorry. Shar. Pay." Gabriella responded, still speaking to Sharpay as though she were slow. Sharpay stared at Gabriella with a dumbfounded expression for a beat before picking up where she left off: an eye roll and her continued rampage down the hallway.

Ryan and Troy exchanged glances and in that second made the silent decision to let Troy follow after her. Still not wanting Ryan to figure out how thrilled he was to exchange Gabriella for Sharpay, Troy let out a small sigh before he followed after Sharpay.

As he was leaving, he heard Gabriella gripe, a little slow on the uptake, "Shorty?! We're the same height! Anyway, where was I?..." Finally, her voice faded out of hearing with his increasing distance put between them.

Turning a corner, he found Sharpay standing at her locker adjusting her hair.

"Shar, what's wrong?" He asked softly as he approached her. "Nobody tried to hurt you, did they?" Troy didn't know where that question came from but after they'd watched a solid building disappear into rubble, anything seemed possible.

Sharpay scoffed and snapped her head around to face Troy. "Not unless you count," she remonstrated as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Me?" Troy asked, completely taken aback. How had _he_ hurt her? He'd never laid a hand on her!

"Yes, you! You were completely and utterly charming towards me! But then _she_ comes back and I lose you to her, again!" She said with angry passion. Closing her eyes, Sharpay took a deep breath before continuing on her diatribe in a softer, though equally passionate voice. "I'm just – I'm tired of this game we play. So, why don't you just go skip back to your fairy tale princess and leave me alone. I've been given a second chance to create memories and I don't want this to be it."

Troy managed to hold her gaze for a second, but he couldn't think of what to say. He knew she was right but he didn't want it to be that way anymore. Sensing that she was about to flee the situation, he opened his mouth to protest but nothing came out. Why can't he say anything? Closing his mouth again, he broke their gaze and instead looked at the ground in defeat.

Troy felt as though he'd just been slapped in the face. He listened to her retreating foot steps with his mind reeling. '_How could I be so stupid? Of course that's how she would feel!'_ Shaking his head, he forced himself out of his shocked state and jogged to catch up with her. _'This can not be how things end!'_

"Shar! Wait!" He called down the hall, picking up his pace to catch her.

"No, Troy!" Sharpay snapped as she whipped around, hair fanning out behind her. Troy saw that she had tears in her eyes which succeeded in stopping him where he was. Holding her hands up to tell him not to come any closer, she whispered "Just. Don't." She then turned the corner and walked out of sight.

"But, I've barely even talked to Gabby, today." Troy protested to himself as he stood in the middle of the hall with slumped shoulders. _'How can so much go wrong in such a short amount of time?'_ he wondered.

"Dude!" Chad called from behind him, breaking through his thoughts. "Hoops!"

"Oh, crap!" Troy forced all thought of Sharpay out of his mind as he sprinted toward the locker room. With everything that had happened to Sharpay over the past few months, Coach Bolton had been much more lenient with Troy's attendance. But now that she was back in school, Coach didn't see any reasonable excuse for Troy to miss practice. And because Troy had taken advantage of the previous leniency, he was certainly paying for it now. In other words, he absolutely can not ever be late to practice again.

Tearing into the locker room, Troy changed his clothes in record time and joined his teammates on the court to warm up. They tossed the ball around and stretched, waiting for the actual practice to begin.

Finally, Coach Bolton put his whistle to his lips and let it sound throughout the echoing gym, calling all the boys to attention. They gathered around him as he started his daily opening speech. After asking if anybody knew where Zeke was, he glanced over to Troy and gave an almost indiscernible smile. Troy returned the smile in full as he listened to his dad's speech, _'It feels good to be back'_.

The team commenced their practice, running drill after drill. It was well into the season, so the team had already reached their stride. They could read each other's intentions perfectly, and they had every play down pat.

Half an hour into practice, Coach Bolton blew his whistle and gathered the sweaty boys around him again.

"Alright guys. You're feeling the rhythm, aren't you?" He asked, happily referring to their high performance level. All the boys responded with a nod, as they were breathing too heavily to speak. Coach looked like he was about to say something but he suddenly cocked his head to the side and listened intently. Re-focusing on his team, he hastily stuttered, "Good. It's great that we. Um. When we reach this, ah, this point. Uh, well." Troy nervously glanced over to Chad who was wearing the same concerned expression. "Well, keep practicing, boys. I just remembered. I have to go get my. Um. My...Whistle! Yes. I need to get my whistle." He then turned on his heal and sprinted out of the gym.

"Wasn't he wearing his whistle around his neck?" Chad said, voicing what all the others were thinking.

The silence that Chad was greeted with was shortly broken by the deafening thud of the gym door on the opposite side of the vast room. The entire team of Wildcats turned to face the far side of the gym, squinting to see who was standing in the doorway.

"BOLTON!" A familiar, angry voice called out. "You got the lead. If you aren't at rehearsal in fifteen, you're cut!" Sharpay said with a snarl.

Troy smiled and was about to respond but she had already disappeared from the doorway. Troy couldn't help but feel like she was hoping he wouldn't show. _'I don't give up that easy, sweetheart'_ he thought with determination. He'd just found the loophole in Sharpay's peace request.

"Wow, this has been a fun five minutes," Chad said, his statement again followed by silence.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing we had free period practice," Troy mumbled with a glance to his watch. Practicing during free period allowed for a shorter after school practice. Of course, Troy would still have to skip out on fifteen minutes but he decided he'd worry about the consequences later.

Troy led the team in ten more minutes of practice before throwing on his warm-ups and grabbing his book bag, leaving his team without a coach or a captain. _'I'm certainly getting my exercise today!'_ he thought as he sprinted down the hallway, not the least bit amused by that fact.

Bursting through the main entrance doors, Troy didn't care to be polite. Interrupting whoever was talking, he dropped his book bag and yelled "I'm here! I made it, I'm not late!" He pointed to his watch for emphasis. Ms. Darbus, who still had her hands in the air from the dramatic oration she'd been giving her thespians, turned to Troy with a critical expression as he continued down the auditorium isle.

"Mr. Bolton. This is an auditorium, please be respectful and stop with your abhorrent bellowing!" She chastised. Troy nodded and took a seat where he had stopped walking. Ms. Darbus turned to face the group again. Throwing her arms wide she recommenced her announcement, "Now, as I was saying–"

"HAS NO ONE BEEN LISTENING TO MY STORY?!" Gabriella shrieked as she jumped up from her seat next to Kelsi at the piano. "I SAID THAT SHARPAY IS WANTED BY A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!"

The entire room, including Ms. Darbus, slowly turned their heads to stare at Gabriella. Troy hadn't even realized she was in the room until now. Come to think of it, he didn't even think she had auditioned. _'Where _was_ she that day?'_ he wondered as he watched Gabriella glare around the room in a crazed manner.

"Gabriella, dear," Ms. Darbus said to her cautiously, she was clearly unwilling to upset the apparently fragile-minded girl. "I can see you are still not feeling well. I think it would be best if you go home now. We'll discuss your participation in this production tomorrow."

Gabriella continued to glare around the room as if she were unsure as to why everybody was staring at her. She slowly turned her head until she locked eyes with Ms. Darbus, stationed at the head of the group. The teacher, to her credit, didn't back down. She fixed Gabriella with one of her notoriously stern looks until Gabriella slowly started to nod her head. She then bent down to pick up her bag, the whole time fanatically glaring at the auditorium of bystanders until she finally turned her back and stiffly left the auditorium.

The entire cast watched her leave, nobody saying a word until she was out of sight. The second they knew she was gone, whispered conversations about what had just happened sprouted from every seat. Ignoring these conversations, Troy turned around in his seat and found Sharpay silently sitting five rows back with Ryan next to her. Troy eagerly made eye contact with her hoping to convey some sort of message. The problem being he was unsure as to what message he wanted to tell her. She returned his gaze wearing an indecipherable expression. Troy sat there, frozen in his chair and unable to read her thoughts. Before he could figure anything out, they were interrupted by Ms. Darbus's voice calling everybody back to attention. Disappointed, he finally broke his gaze to face Ms. Darbus and allow rehearsal to officially begin.

**

* * *

It's pretty crazy where I get my inspiration, sometimes. Would you believe the format of this chapter is inspired by Scrubs, Forest Gump, a little bit from Saved, and a lot from the insanity that is my brain? Don't see the connection? Neither do I, and yet, here we are.**

**I'm sorry if you're a Gabriella fan, cause I'm not so much. But if it makes you feel better, she's not actually as crazy as she seems in this chapter...though she's not completely sane either. The next two chapter's will reveal a LOT more about her stint in the Country Club's five acre park and what she discovered.**

**If you haven't already, you should all check out my other story called **_**The Price of Sovereignty**_**. I'm afraid it is partly to blame for the delay in my recent updates on this story, but as long as you're waiting you can jump over to that story and review it, as well. I have the second chapter up, so you can all see more the direction of the story now.**

**And don't forget to Review!!!**


	12. From A Twin's Perspective

**Wow, I am so amazing. Look at this quick update – who would've thought I had it in me? As you'll see when you read it, this was a slightly easier chapter to write because I already had pretty much every detail figured out, but Ryan is apparently a very chatty guy. This is definitely way longer than I thought it would be.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or Saved – which I may have borrowed a line from**

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From A Twin's Perspective

Ring

'_Finally!'_

A wave of relief washed over Ryan. One more day had passed without a mishap involving Sharpay and her...amnesia. He still had trouble admitting that she had a problem. At least his patience was getting better.

Gathering his things, Ryan stood and proceeded alone down the quickly filling hallway. Sharpay had decided not to go to half of her classes today and he wasn't completely sure why. Her disappearance didn't worry him though; he knew exactly where she was.

"So, what's with the magic act today?" He asked to seemingly nobody after he'd passed the girls bathroom.

"Magic act? Why, whatever do you mean?" An innocent sounding Sharpay responded by his side. She had been hiding in the bathroom for the entirety of their last class period. "I was employed elsewhere and simply couldn't make it to class."

"First of all, we've got to get you off the Jane Austin novels. Second of all, employed in the bathroom? Remind me to never eat what you did yesterday. Thirdly, you just happened to be occupied for every class that you and Troy share? Sounds pretty suspicious to me, Sharpay. What happened after that Head-Trauma Convention? When you came home you were all giddy and starry eyed. What could have possibly changed in the past 36 hours?" To be perfectly honest, Ryan was just about ready to beat on Troy. If it weren't for the fact that Troy was taller, stronger and more practiced in that area, of course. He was just tired of this golden boy making Sharpay feel less than herself.

Sharpay let out a dramatic sigh. "Technically, nothing changed. I just realized that it's never going to happen. I mean, he's great towards me when it's just us, but little miss 'I-have-naturally-curly-hair-and-I-don't-know-how-to-care-for-it-but-it-always-looks-pretty-anyways' is back so he's just going to ignore me again. The problem is, I always seem to forget my resolution to disregard his existence once I look into his eyes. So, instead, I am effectively removing myself from the equation." She responded with a flounce of her hair.

"Well, you seem strangely chirpy about this resolution," Ryan responded, not believing her contentment in the least.

Turning to go down the hallway to his locker, he expected for Sharpay to follow in suit. Instead, he took one step and was yanked back by Sharpay's unnaturally strong grip on his upper arm. He stumbled trying to regain his balance as Sharpay continued straight down the hallway, expecting him to catch up.

"Shar?" Ryan called as he sped up his steps in order to reach her. "Our lockers are down that other hall, remember?" he asked, gritting his teeth to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Why is her amnesia so annoying all the time?

"I know that," Sharpay scoffed. "But Ms. Darbus has the cast list posted and I wanted to check what part I got. If I even get one after that stage light fiasco."

"Oh!" Ryan said, perking up. He was just as curious as she was. They continued down the hall not speaking. As they walked, Ryan let his mind wander back to that disastrous audition. That day never seemed to make sense to him. Why had that stage light fallen? And, since it obviously couldn't be Sharpay's fault, whose was it?

Ryan was so deep in thought, he almost forgot to stop. There it was, posted on the drama club bulletin board located near Ms. Darbus' classroom. There were a few drama club member's hanging around the cast list blocking Ryan and Sharpay's view. Glancing over to his sister, Ryan realized that she wasn't going to be able to look at the sign herself. She was keeping a good distance from the board, all the while watching the sign with a frightened expression on her face as she took short, shallow breaths. Seeing her reaction, Ryan was reminded of their first cast list unveiling way back in first grade. Sharpay had reacted in exactly this manner.

Putting his hand on her arm, he told her softly, "You stay here. I'm going to go look for us." Sharpay nodded without taking her eyes off the sign. Ryan watched her for a second debating with himself. _'We're twins, it's not like I've ever held back before'_ he easily concluded. Leaning in closer he whispered "You might want to stop looking so scared. Old Sharpay wasn't afraid of paper and ink." With that statement, Sharpay's mouth snapped shut and a hardened expression settled on her face, but she made no attempt to read the list. _'Good enough'_ Ryan thought.

Unceremoniously pushing his way through the small crowd, Ryan ran his finger down the list.

Lysistrata: Sharpay Evans

Koryphaios: Troy Bolton

Commissioner: Ryan Evans

Lampito: Martha Cox

Not needing to read further, Ryan dropped his finger and slowly turned around to face Sharpay. Troy Bolton got his part. '_Well, that really sucks.'_

Ryan raised his gaze to meet Sharpay's and realized she had been watching him that whole time. After seeing his disappointed reaction, her worry had returned to her face in full form. Guilt immediately washed over him, this is her second first cast list and she is dieing to know her part. _'I should have immediately told her, instead of focusing on my own bad luck'_ he scolded himself. In an attempt to rectify this mistake, Ryan put a smile on his face as he ran to Sharpay and enveloped her in a warm hug. "You got the part!"

Upon hearing this, Sharpay pulled back to hold Ryan at arms length. Looking him dead in the eyes she eagerly whispered "Seriously? I got the part?" Ryan nodded with the same goofy grin on his face. Matching his grin, Sharpay let out a gleeful squeal and pulled Ryan into another hug as they both jumped excitedly in celebration.

"Wait," Sharpay said, instantly halting her victory dance to focus back on Ryan. "Why are we celebrating before you even told me which part you got?"

"Oh. Um, I got the part of the Commissioner!" Ryan said feigning excitement. He started jumping excitedly as they had done for her. Letting out another squeal, Sharpay joined him in his jumping but immediately stopped when his statement had actually processed. Putting her hands on her hips, she settled Ryan with an accusatory glare as his fake celebration slowly petered out.

"I thought you wanted Koryphaios" She stated simply.

"Well, I _did_. But this part is just as good. In retrospect, I think I prefer this part. It's goofier. And you know how well I can play goofy. Well, you used to know," He insisted. "Anyway, Troy got Koryphaios."

"What?!" Sharpay screeched.

"You should probably stop yelling."

"Troy got in the play? Well, of course he did, he has to invade every part of my life when I don't want him to, doesn't he? Of course, the second I actually need him – poof! His disappearing act is well practiced..." Sharpay turned on her heal and started walking down the hallway still grumbling to herself about Troy.

"Shar, wait!" Ryan called after her. As he was talking to Sharpay, he had realized that he actually was ok with the part he got. But his hatred toward Troy was growing due to Sharpay's reaction. _'Anyone who affects her self-esteem like that does not deserve to get off scot free'_.

Catching up to Sharpay, he intently focused his attention on calming her down. He hated seeing her so worked up.

"Shar, don't worry about it. You'll barely have to even talk to him except when it's scripted–"

"–And so, we finally decided on pink–Ouch!"

Ryan jumped back in surprise. Gabriella had just appeared out of nowhere and ran into Sharpay!

Seeing that she had dropped her bag, Ryan instinctively bent down and picked it up before she had even made a move for it.

"Hey! Watch where you're going shorty!" Sharpay spit out, obviously annoyed with the brunette.

Ryan looked over to Troy, who had yet to say anything. He was anticipating feeling angry at the boy who was making his sister so miserable but when Troy met his gaze, he saw what Sharpay hadn't. He saw what Sharpay couldn't. He saw desperation.

"I'm. Sorry. Shar. Pay."

Ryan saw Troy's desperation and he instantly understood what was going on. Troy had finally fallen for Sharpay and it had happened at the worst possible moment. Not only had Sharpay just decided to erase him from her life but Gabriella was back and in fragile condition. Not a very considerate time to break her heart.

With an eye roll, Sharpay continued toward her locker.

Softening, Ryan gave Troy a clandestine nod. Eye's lighting up, Troy let out a fake sigh and slowly started to follow Sharpay down the hall, only to increase his pace to a run after he had taken two steps.

Ryan chuckled and shook his head. _'And to think, that boy beat me at getting the Koryphaios role.'_

"Shorty?! We're the same height!" Gabriella burst, apparently slow on the uptake. "Anyway, where was I?"

"I don't know, we weren't talking," Ryan responded hesitantly.

"Ryan? I thought you were Troy!" Gabriella said, clearly surprised to see Ryan standing there.

"I see your keen sense of observation is still in tact. How was your stint in the Country Club's five acre park, by the way?"

"Oh, I was just telling Troy about that. Well, you'll really appreciate this next part of my story. Here, walk with me to Ms. Darbus' room."

Seeing as he had plenty of time before rehearsal began, he acquiesced.

"This particular event happened Saturday, the second day we were at the camp."

'_I hope Troy finds a way to work this out with Sharpay. Maybe I shouldn't have let him go talk to her, she wasn't exactly composed enough to listen to anything he would say.'_

"So I suggested a talent competition. I have to admit, it wasn't a completely Christian suggestion. I sort of knew, what with all my practice here and at Lava Springs last summer, that I would be a shoe in for the final round. But, I had good intentions, I swear!–"

'_Wow, she needs to work on her story telling skills. But she does have great hair. I wonder how she gets it to curl like that. No wonder Sharpay is so jealous.'_ As Gabriella continued her story, Ryan couldn't help but to wonder why they were headed toward Ms. Darbus' room. '_Gabriella hadn't even auditioned for the musical, what does she need to talk to Ms. Darbus about_?' Ryan wondered._ 'Where _was_ she that day, anyway?'_

"So then we all thought 'wow, she's finally getting it' and everybody was congratulating me for getting through to her. Of course, she had to choose that exact moment to stumble in shouting to some guy 'No more muffins for you! The muffin shop is closed!' with some impudent gesture that I didn't really understand. It was humiliating! I mean, she completely eradicated my credibility! But, don't worry, I won that talent show and chose her as my partner," Gabriella sighed contentedly with a dreamy look in her eyes. "Everybody thought I was so wonderful for sacrificing my own personal enjoyment to help save this poor perpetual sinner."

"Ah, we're finally here!" Ryan exclaimed in relief as they approached Ms. Darbus' closed classroom door. "Sorry, Gabs, I don't think she's here. Well, I should probably, um–"

As Ryan was searching for an excuse to stop listening to Gabriella's story, Sharpay stomped by in an obvious rage. Her face was red with frustration and her fists were clenched.

"I should probably go find out what's up. Promise me you'll finish telling this fascinating story some other time," Ryan said trying his best to look regretful for having to leave.

"Of course, don't worry about it! Sharpay obviously needs you right now. Besides, there's Kelsi. HI KELSI! I can go talk to her. See you later Ry," Gabriella said trotting off to tell Kelsi about her woodland adventures.

Turning in the other direction, Ryan ran after Sharpay (_'I seem to be doing this a lot today'_) seeing her just as she ducked into the girls bathroom. Knowing that she merely needed some time to compose herself, he leaned against the wall outside the entrance and slowly slid down to a sitting position.

Twenty minutes later, Sharpay emerged from the bathroom wearing no sign of her past exchange with Troy except for the angry look in her eyes.

"Better?" Ryan asked.

"Yep," Sharpay responded conspiratorially brightly. "We better go tell Troy that he's expected at rehearsal."

Ryan didn't think that Sharpay was the best person for this task, but he also knew there would be no dissuading her. And, being well practiced in picking his battles, he decided not to argue. Instead, he stood up and simply allowed Sharpay to lead the way.

They reached the Gym doors, where Sharpay shoved Ryan out of the way in order to be the one to open them. Using all her might, she heaved the door open with enough force to make it bang on the opposite.

"BOLTON! You got the lead. If you aren't at rehearsal in fifteen, you're cut!" Sharpay said with a snarl. With that, she turned and walked away in the direction of the auditorium.

"Sharpay, you know Ms. Darbus won't cut him. This is just the first rehearsal. And she's been much more lenient about attendance ever since he was in _Twinkle Towne_." Ryan tried to reason with her but she wouldn't listen. Throwing her hand up, Sharpay silently told him that she didn't want to hear it. Irritated, Ryan conceded that he had lost this particular battle.

The twins entered the auditorium to find that they weren't the first to arrive. In fact, most of the cast and crew seemed to already be seated and eager to begin.

Taking their usual seats in the middle of the auditorium, Ryan took a chance to look around the room. That was when he noticed Gabriella in the corner of the room talking to Ms. Darbus. By the looks of their body language, they seemed to be having an intense discussion. Ms. Darbus was continually nodding as Gabriella incessantly talked and gestured wildly. _'Oh, I hope she isn't telling her story.'_ He thought as he lost interest and focused on a different group of students. They were on stage, playing with and laughing at the camel that was used three productions ago. _'Does nobody have respect for the theatre any more?' _Ryan thought with disgust as he continued to watch disapprovingly.

"Sorry about that. Anyway, back to my story. That's when we realized that we had to put all our survival skills to test. I decided to fix the camp site as she went out in search of food. Unfortunately, I think she was eaten because she never returned."

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Sharpay snapped as both she and Ryan confusedly turned to look at Gabriella, who had settled herself in the seat next to Sharpay.

"Sharpay? I thought you were Kelsi! My bad," She said with a nervous laugh. Getting up, she quickly shuffled away to join Kelsi who was sitting at her piano, fingering the keys to the opening song.

Before either twin could comment on what had just happened, Ms. Darbus stood up and called everybody to attention.

"Welcome cast and crew of Lysistrata! This is where the true expression of the artist is realized, where inner truth is revealed through the actor's journey–"

"I'm here! I made it, I'm not late!" Troy interrupted as he burst through the auditorium doors. Sharpay groaned in disgust and refused to look over, instead staring intently at Ms. Darbus's glasses.

"Mr. Bolton. This is an auditorium, please be respectful and stop with your abhorrent bellowing!" Ms. Darbus chastised. Troy nodded and took a seat where he had stopped walking, a few rows ahead of the twins.

Re-centering herself towards the cast, Ms. Darbus threw open her arms and bellowed "Now, as I was saying–"

"HAS NO ONE BEEN LISTENING TO MY STORY?!" Gabriella shrieked, jumping from her seat next to Kelsi. "I SAID THAT SHARPAY IS WANTED BY A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!"

Hearing her name, Sharpay stiffened. Not wanting to reveal her interest, she kept her focus on Ms. Darbus's glasses but Ryan knew she was paying particular attention to what was being said. Ryan, on the other hand, followed everybody else in bringing his gaze to the girl who had just burst out with that ridiculous accusation.

"Gabriella, dear. I can see you are still not feeling well. I think it would be best if you go home now. We'll discuss your participation in this production tomorrow."

Ryan wasn't sure if Ms. Darbus was genuinely concerned about Gabriella's strange behavior or simply angry that she was interrupted again and ardent to get rid of the nuisance.

It took Gabriella a few minutes of deafening silence to agree but she eventually started to slowly nod her head as she grabbed her book bag from the floor. The eyes of every student in the room, excepting Sharpay, followed Gabriella expectantly as she exited the room.

Once she was out of eye-sight, the auditorium filled with the sound of hushed conversations all speculating over what Gabriella could possibly have meant by her statement. From what Ryan overheard, the general consensus seemed to be that aliens had abducted her and she had consequently gone insane. Ryan rolled his eyes. _'People can be so dumb sometimes.'_

Not wishing to acknowledge these conversations, Ryan looked away to ensure that he did not make eye-contact with any of his classmates. _'They should stop gossiping. It's just rude!'_ he fumed silently to himself. Finally, Ms. Darbus collected herself enough to call the room back to attention, and for the third time in five minutes she began her opening speech.

**

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No, you aren't going crazy. Some of that should have sounded vaguely familiar. And no, I'm not going crazy either (at least I think I'm not). I really hope this helped to alleviate some of the confusion. Of course, with my luck it just perpetuated the confusion.**

**I'm sorry, but just hearing those small pieces of Gabriella's story cracks me up. I was just going to do it that once in the last chapter with Troy – I was thinking of her whole story as I was writing so I didn't realize how random it sounded until I reread it in my edit – but I thought it was so funny that I had to put another scene like that in this chapter. My reasoning for that was purely selfish but you have to admit, it does make her story sound pretty good! And xoblue, I promise the next chapter will have Gabriella's entire story and, believe me, it is funny! (also, yes, that was exactly the Saved I was referring to. Isn't that a great movie?! Hilarious...)**

**Anyway...Please Review!!!!**


	13. An Unheard Tale Part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical or Saved.**

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An Unheard Tale Part 1

Bbbbbbbrrrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg!!!!!

Gabriella jumped in surprise at the sound of a shrill jaguar cry signaling a successful kill.

Wait.

Nope, that was just the bell. Watching everybody saunter out of the classroom in small clusters of friends discussing their weekends, Gabriella willed her heart to slow its heavy, anxious beating. Taking a deep, calming breath she gathered her things and cautiously stepped into the hallway swarming with predators – er – students.

Reaching the safety of her locker, Gabriella vigilantly pulled out her textbooks as she repeatedly reassured herself that _'I am no longer in the jungle. I am no longer in the jungle. I am no longer –'_

"Guess who?" a primitive native crooned evilly as he viciously grabbed her head, ready to slit her throat with a jagged tree branch. Giggling nervously, Gabriella stood and slowly turned, expecting to see a man covered in Lion's blood and Ostrich feathers before she remembered that _'I am no longer in the jungle'_.

"So, we haven't talked in ages!" Troy exclaimed enthusiastically. Gabriella wished he would lower his voice so he wouldn't awaken the lethal night owls, but she wasn't one to impose. "Tell me what happened on this illustrious church retreat."

'_Oh, thank God! I need to tell somebody about this!'_ Gabriella thought with relief. This was just too big to hold in any longer. With another giggle, she animatedly responded "My, this is a long story. But you will never believe what I discovered while lost in the wilderness!"

"Weren't you just in the Country Club's five acre park?"

Gabriella wasn't sure why but that question really ground on her nerves. "Whatever," she dismissed the statement with gritted teeth. "You are absolutely going to flip when I tell you this."

Gabriella stared at Troy's expressionless face willing him to take the bate.

"Ok, tell me everything. And start from the beginning."

"Well, since you asked," She began, feigning reluctance in an attempt to lessen her eager demeanor. "It started on the bus..."

_

* * *

Stepping up onto the rented school bus, Gabriella paused to take a look around at the rest of the Youth Group. There was a group of girls sitting in the back, gossiping excitedly and comparing their stylish new hiking boots. To the right was a small group of girls all smiling and waving her over. And to the left was Cassandra, decked out in all black with a vacant expression on her face as she petulantly blew out a puff of smoke in Gabriella's direction._

_Ignoring her friends beckoning calls, Gabriella plopped herself down in the seat next to Cassandra._

"_You know, second hand smoke kills," Gabriella said nodding her head in the direction of the cigarette clutched in Cassandra's hand._

_With a glare, Cassandra slowly turned her head to face Gabriella. "I'm counting on it," she drawled before putting her I-pod headphone into her ear._

"_I don't understand why you keep resisting." Gabriella continued, not having noticed the I-pod head phone in Cassandra's ear. "Is living in sin really that strong of a temptation? You need to believe me, Cassandra, you're life will be so much better, so much more fulfilled, once you devote yourself to Jesus." Gabriella carefully watched Cassandra's reaction. She was furtively nodding her head as she tapped her fingers on the seat in front of her at a fast paced tempo._

_Smiling, Gabriella sat back in her seat. She finally felt as though she was getting through to Cassandra. She was even nodding along to her persuasions! Cassandra glanced over in time to see Gabriella's smug nod. Irritated, she pulled out her head phone and asked "I'm sorry, were you talking?" Gabriella scowled but couldn't respond because Becky, their youth leader, was standing at the front of the bus calling the group to attention._

"_Well, hello there y'all!" She sang with a thrilled smile lighting up her soft features. "The fun begins now!" She giggled as the bus full of girls, minus Cassandra, erupted in cheers and applause. "This entire weekend we are going to be competing towards a surprise reward. Now," she revealed from behind the bench seat a red balloon, "what do you – "_

"_Devil color!" Gabriella shrieked pointing towards the balloon._

"_Well, that's not actually where I was going with – "_

"_You think red's a Devil color?" A girl from the back of the bus interrupted curiously. "I always thought it would be green."_

"_Green?" One of Gabriella's friends laughed snootily. "Why in the world would you think that?"_

"_Because," the first girl responded with disdain dripping from her voice. "It represents greed, which, as I'm sure you remember, is one of the seven deadly sins."_

"_Girls, I would really prefer if we could –"_

"_What about black then? It's representative of nothingness; of being lost. And if you're lost, then you are obviously not with God, which clearly leaves you with the Devil. I mean, just look at Cassandra." The girl said indicating Cassandra's black clothing. Lucky for her, Cassandra was listening to her I-pod again. Devil music, no doubt._

"_Great," Becky muttered sarcastically, her previous enthusiasm already drained from her being, "I'll call the priest. He'll be dieing to learn our verdict on that pressing matter." Unable to regain control of the conversation, Becky sank into her seat in a defeated manner and allowed the girls to finish debating the evil's of color._

"_Actually," Gabriella spoke up, regally domination the girls' attention. "Now that I think about it, pink is probably the most Devilish color. I know this girl at school – she's completely obsessed with pink – and she's, quite possibly, the vainest person I know. And vanity, as I recall, is another of the seven deadly sins. Also, she uses pink in her clothing to try to provoke lust in the boys, another deadly sin," she continued, counting off the number of sins that pink represents on her fingers. "Plus, she thrives on causing envy in every person she associates with. That's, what, three deadly sins all for one color?"_

_After that explanation, all the other girls on the bus expressed their agreement and took turns recounting their own incidences with the evils of that color._

* * *

"And so, we finally decided on pink – Ouch!" Gabriella had been so into her story that she forgot to watch her surroundings. Her collision was so fierce that she had dropped her backpack. Before she even had a chance to recollect herself enough to pick it up, Ryan Evans had already done so and was handing it back to her. 

"Hey! Watch where you're going shorty!" Sharpay spit out, obviously annoyed with the brunette.

"I'm. Sorry. Shar. Pay." Gabriella replied, hoping she hadn't spoken too quickly for the poor amnesiac to understand. With a scowl and an eye roll, Sharpay continued on her way. _'She must not have understood me. She did call me shorty, after all, and that definitely isn't my name.'_ Gabriella reasoned, unfortunately still under the impression that memory loss and hearing loss had some sort of connection. _'It must be so hard trying to relearn English. Wait a minute, did she mean shorty as in – '_

"Shorty?! We're the same height!" Gabriella shouted indignantly, finally having interpreted the meaning of Sharpay's statement. Gabriella quickly decided to excuse this obvious slip on the grounds of Sharpay's new disability and instead decided to continue on with her story.

"Anyway, where was I?" she asked, expecting Troy to give her a much needed prompt. What she got instead was Ryan's hesitant voice responding, "I don't know, we weren't talking."

"Ryan? I thought you were Troy!"

"I see your keen sense of observation is still in tact. How was your stint in the Country Club's five acre park, by the way?"

'_Again with reminding me it was the park,'_ Gabriella inwardly fumed, but on the outside she just smiled sweetly and said "Oh, I was just telling Troy about that. Well, you'll really appreciate this next part of my story. Here, walk with me to Ms. Darbus' room."

After seeing a flyer for the _Lysistrata_ auditions earlier in the day, Gabriella realized that she had missed them. But, given her lead role last winter, she was sure she could convince Ms. Darbus to squeeze her into the production somewhere. She started walking in the direction of the drama room and was pleased to see that Ryan had decided to follow, because she was desperate to tell someone about her discovery. Starting where she had last left off, she began "This particular even happened Saturday, the second day we were at the camp..."

_

* * *

The group of teenage girls were gathered around a campfire in the early morning mist, some roasting marshmallows, others wrinkling their noses at the amount of calories in a marshmallow. Gabriella was one of the nose wrinklers. Cassandra wasn't participating._

_Approaching the group, Becky took a deep breath and forced herself to speak confidently. These girls could smell fear._

"_All right, y'all. Do you want to know what you'll be competing for?"_

_All the girls looked up at Becky quizzically. "We're competing? What's so Christian about that?" someone spoke up._

"_Uh, well, it'll just be a friendly competition with religious lessons intertwined, of course. We only raised enough money for one pair to do this particular activity and I thought it would be a great prize for all y'all to work towards." Becky stammered, speaking quickly in order to get her entire explanation out before being interrupted. The girls just stared at her. Seeing this as her opportunity to reveal the big prize, Becky finally told them. "The winner gets to choose a friend to take on a hot-air balloon ride! Won't that be fun?" Confidence restored, Becky's behavior and facial expressions were back to their usual unassailable joy._

_Watching Cassandra as she took a long drag on her cigarette, Gabriella realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to convince the girl once and for all to be saved. They'd be trapped in a hot-air balloon, Cassandra unable to escape or listen to her I-pod, Gabriella fully prepared to perform the ceremony. Returning her gaze to Becky's smiling features, she said "How about we do a talent show?"_

_Confused, Becky met Gabriellas gaze, "I'm sorry? A talent show?"_

"_Yeah," Gabriella explained. "As the competition. You know, to decide which of us goes in the hot-air balloon."_

_Becky looked taken aback. "Well, actually, I already had games planned for this –"_

_Interrupting their Youth Leader, the group of girls all chorused their desire for a talent competition over any silly game Becky had planned. Seeing this unanimous agreement, Becky disappointedly retreated into her cabin to make some cancellation phone calls._

_After this decision had been finalized, Gabriella stood and approached Cassandra. "Why don't you join the group, Cassandra?" She asked innocently._

_Looking up, Cassandra gave her a sad smile and said "I always get this really left out feeling whenever I hang with you guys. It's like you all are judging me because I'm not saved yet."_

_Giving her an encouraging smile, Gabriella responded "Well, if you decided to accept Jesus into your heart you could join in on the fun!"_

"_You know what?" Cassandra asked, stomping on her cigarette butt. "You're right!" _

_Gabriella inwardly jumped for joy. _'Finally! I get to save Cassandra!' _"Well! I don't have all my equipment ready. Ok, nevermind. First, you have to confess all of your sins out loud," Gabriella said excitedly._

"_Well," Cassandra began very seriously, "there's all the swearing. I mean, I have a Goddamned dirty mouth!" Unable to hold the seriousness any longer, Cassandra face broke into a smirk as she continued, "And the sex! I mean, we're talking oral -"_

_Gabriella angrily slapped a hand over Cassandra's mouth to keep her from finishing that sentence. "Never mind," she whispered and returned to the camp fire._

_The rest of the day was spent with the girls each working on their talents. The show was decided to begin at five. By lunch, they were all exhausted. Looking around, Gabriella wondered where Cassandra had gone to._

"_Wow, Gabriella, you are being so wonderful." One of her friends murmured in admiration._

"_Oh, no I'm not," Gabriella pretended to dismiss the statement, but she couldn't release the curiosity. "Why do you say that?" She finally asked._

"_Well, you sacrifice so much of your time and enjoyment to try to Save Cassandra. It's just so noble! It show's how dedicated you are to the cause!"_

"_Well," Gabriella giggled, "Anything for the cause, right?"_

_Just then, Cassandra came stumbling into the mess hall, obviously drunk and shouting towards the hallway she had just come from"No more muffins for you! The muffin shop is closed!" while she grabbed her crotch and knocked her knees closed. Gabriella was horrified, and more determined than ever to win that talent show. Throwing the rest of her lunch away, she secluded herself in an empty room to practice for the rest of the afternoon._

_Finally, the talent show came around. Most of the girls had stopped practicing after lunch since they weren't particularly desperate to go on a hot-air balloon ride to begin with. Other's had half-heartedly practiced simply because Gabriella had been the one to suggest this competition and they wanted her to think them talented._

_Becky chose a seat near the performance area, which was simply a small clearing near the campfire, and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. As teenager after teenager took the stage she fell further and further into her own thoughts, not paying the slightest bit of attention to her judging duties. _'Where did I go wrong in life?_' she wondered. _'This was not supposed to be it!_'_

_The talent show was soon over, and the girls who thought they had a chance at winning were all standing in the performing area looking at Becky expectantly._

_Realizing she was supposed to announce a winner, Becky quickly scanned the list of contestants. Seeing Gabriella's name, she smiled conspiratorially to herself and loudly called out "Gabriella Montez!"_

_With an exaggerated scream, Gabriella fanned her face as she excitedly jumped up and down. This, of course, was all for show. She knew she was going to win. How could she not have, next to these half-rate losers?_

"_Who are you going to take with you?" One of the bitter runner-ups asked her._

_With an evil gleam, she searched out Cassandra in the audience. Steadily holding her gaze, she evenly stated "I'm taking Cassandra."_

* * *

"Ah, we're finally here!" Ryan exclaimed, jolting Gabriella out of her memories and, again, putting her senses on high alert. 

'_We're where?'_ she thought, looking around her. She saw Coach Bolton a couple yards down the hallway. He smiled at her, but his smile quickly turned sour as he seemed to be listening to something that Gabriella couldn't make out. All of a sudden, he motioned for Gabriella to stay silent as to his whereabouts and he ducked into the nearest classroom, completely disappearing from view.

'_Huh, I wonder what that was about.'_

"Sorry Gabs, I don't think she's here. Well, I should probably, um –"

Just then, an angry Sharpay with tears in her eyes, stormed passed Gabriella and Ryan in the direction of the girls' bathroom. Gabriella was not used to seeing an emotion other than irritability coming from Sharpay. She was shocked.

"I should probably go find out what's up. Promise me you'll finish telling this fascinating story some other time." Ryan said while inching away in Sharpay's direction.

'_Oh! _Ms. Darbus_ isn't here! Because we're in front of _Ms. Darbus'_ classroom!'_ Gabriella reminded herself. Finally aware of what was going on, she turned to Ryan. "Of course, don't worry about it!" She reassured him. "Sharpay obviously needs you right now. Besides, there's Kelsi. HI KELSI! I can go talk to her. See you later Ry!" She said as she skipped down the hall in Kelsi's direction.

**

* * *

What is it with me and writing so much? This is already just as long as my last two chapters and we're only half way there. I clearly don't have a good sense of how long it takes me to explain what I want. But, I figured this was a good place to stop. We've heard two parts of Gabriella's story. We've got two more to go. And then, I promise, the world will make sense again ;)**

**I've been reading up on Stalin, cause I'm a nerd and I wanted to, but I've been learning a lot about taking over a country and successfully rallying people to revolutionize their lives. Anyway, their big mantra was "Anything for the cause" because they would do, quite literally, _anything_ to ensure that the Tzars were taken down and they were subsequently put into power. So, in my own nerdy sense of humor, I gave Gabriella that line when talking about Saving Cassandra. "Anything for the cause".**

**I've worked really hard on this chapter...well on the whole story, but especially on this chapter...so please justify my efforts with a Review. Thanks!**


	14. An Unheard Tale Part 2

**So, my boss wants me to move to Paris with him over the summer. Is that weird? Probably. But, with my family situation what it is, I don't really have much holding me back. And, come on, it's Paris! He's flying me over for the week because it's my spring break. This, unfortunately, means that I am posting while waiting for my connecter flight and that I won't be able to get anything more up in the immediate future. But, because of that fact, I tried to make this chapter extra juicy for your enjoyment!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical or its characters, nor do I own Jack Bauer.**

* * *

'_Oh! __Ms. Darbus__ isn't here! Because we're in front of __Ms. Darbus'__ classroom!'__ Gabriella reminded herself. Finally aware of what was going on, she turned to Ryan. "Of course, don't worry about it!" She reassured him. "Sharpay obviously needs you right now. Besides, there's Kelsi. HI KELSI! I can go talk to her. See you later Ry!" She said as she skipped down the hall in Kelsi's direction._

* * *

An Unheard Tale Part 2

Gabriella approached her friend with a big grin on her face as she eased her skipping.

"Hey Gabby!" Kelsi greeted enthusiastically. "How was the Country Clubs five acre park?"

"STOP REMINDING ME THAT IT WAS JUST THE PARK!" Gabriella screeched, losing her patience with that statement.

Startled, Kelsi gave her a frightened expression and quietly apologized. Horrified by her own rude behavior, Gabriella immediately softened her face and apologized to her upset friend, "I'm so sorry, Kelsi! You did not deserve that! I've just been a little on edge today. You see, on what was supposed to be the last day of my retreat..."

_

* * *

Gabriella stepped towards the almost ready hot-air balloon forcibly pulling Cassandra along behind her. _

"_You have got to be kidding me!" Cassandra protested. "I am not getting in that thing with you!" _

_The girls had completed a condensed course of safety training in the morning where Cassandra had her death glare permanently set on her face. Having woken up with a horrible hang over, she was not in the mood to do more than just verbally disagree with anything that was said. Now that they had reached zero hour, Cassandra started to physically recoil at any of Gabriella's advances._

_They were both sat in the crowded gondola waiting for their pilot to finish prepping the balloon and join them as Gabriella decided to continue their earlier argument. Raising her voice to be heard over the noise of the air machine, Gabriella shouted, "You could put a gold chain around the neck of a pig, dress him in a sport shirt, dab him with cologne and call him Arnold. But what is Arnold going to do when he comes to a mud puddle? He'll jump in! And why do you think he'll jump in? Because of his nature! It is the same way with people. No matter how much you change on the outside, your inner nature is still sinful. So, unless you are changed from the inside you will eventually come back to sin, just like a pig comes back to wallowing in the mud. Cassandra, you are that pig."_

_Completely offended at the pig statement, Cassandra let her outrage take control. Shooting Gabriella an evil smirk, Cassandra abruptly yanked on the blast valve so that the propane was rapidly shooting into the air. Then, with her Bic lighter, she ignited the burner to create the hot, blue-white flame needed to lift the balloon into the air._

"_What do you think you are doing?" Gabriella shrieked. "The pilot isn't here yet!" Panicking, she started to open the basket's door but the balloon was already lifting into the air. Eye's widening in fright as she watched the ground drop away, Gabriella gasped and fell to a seated position in the bottom of the basket hugging her knees and rocking herself back and forth. Cassandra just laughed._

_Down on the ground, the pilot watched helplessly as his pilots license floated away with these rogue teenagers. _

* * *

"No, sorry Martha, I haven't seen him. He must be sick because I'm pretty sure he hasn't been in school all day." Kelsi was saying to Martha. Gabriella felt slightly disoriented. Where were they? And when had Martha shown up? Oh my God, is that a _real_ Wild Cat?! But, instead of asking any of these questions, Gabriella decided to go with, "Hi Martha!" 

"Hey, Gabriella! How was the Country–"

"DON'T!" Kelsi shouted urgently. Seeing Gabriella's accusatory frown, she quickly amended, "Don't, uh, forget to ask Gabriella about Zeke!"

Catching the hint and making a mental note to ask Kelsi about it later, Martha nodded and turned to Gabriella to ask, "Have you seen Zeke today?"

"Sorry, no. And you know who else I won't ever see again?"

Kelsi sighed, Martha looked worried and Gabriella paid them no mind as she flowed straight back into her story...

_

* * *

The two girls had been in the air for over an hour. Done were the fights about why Cassandra had done what she did. Done were the disagreements about what they should do to fix the situation. Now they were both squished as far from the other as was physically possible in the tiny gondola because they both refused to speak._

_After another ten minutes, Cassandra looked over at Gabriella and snorted with laughter in a childish attempt to irritate her opponent._

_Quick to defend, Gabriella snapped her head up and retorted with an angry "Shove it!" But this just made Cassandra laugh even harder. Unable to express just how angry she was feeling at that moment, Gabriella instead reached up and completely shut off the propane._

_With a gasp, Cassandra shrieked "What did you do that for?"_

"_I don't understand why we haven't done it to begin with," Gabriella replied condescendingly._

"_Because we don't know how to land this God forsaken death trap!"_

"_I'm sure it isn't that hard," Gabriella said but her confidence quickly vanished when she saw the balloon start to deflate from the lack of pressure._

_The hot-air balloon starting sinking. Cassandra looked at Gabriella, her fear battling with her anger for dominance. "Well, it'll be even harder when we're free falling," She said sarcastically as the balloon started to sink at a quicker pace._

_Grabbing onto each other, the two girls let out petrified screams as the balloon went down..._

_down..._

_down..._

_into a soft thicket of trees! _

_The nylon of the balloon caught at the top of the trees allowing enough give for the basket to bob slightly and the girls to end up unharmed, sitting in a basket hanging five feet above the ground, still screaming uncontrollably._

_It took another ten minutes for either to calm down enough to realize that they were perfectly fine. Eventually steadying her shaking limbs enough to climb down, Gabriella dropped to her knees and kissed the dirt in gratification of its stability as Cassandra watched, sporting her customary aggravated scowl._

* * *

"Welcome!" Ms. Darbus's grand salutations boomed throughout the auditorium. "Come in, come in! Martha, I'm so happy to see you, Kelsi, always a pleasure! And, Gabriella? What are you doing here, dear?" 

Gabriella left the sides of her friends to approach Ms. Darbus. She pulled the teacher into the corner of the auditorium so as to create some privacy. She then began her wilderness story, starting from the very beginning, in order to explain to Ms. Darbus why she had missed the auditions. She was very pleased to see Ms. Darbus nodding along to the story and exclaiming at the proper points. She didn't seem to get that kind of reaction from any of her friends, _'Must be the generation difference'_.

Getting to about the point where she and Cassandra were loading onto the hot-air balloon, Ms. Darbus put her hand on Gabriella's shoulder and said in a soothing voice, "Gabriella, dear, I don't think it is humanly possible for me to listen to any more of this story. I would suggest you take a creative writing class. Now, as to the play, I have much to do to prepare for today's rehearsal and I do not have time to negotiate parts. But I will not say no to your inquiry just yet. How about you sit in on rehearsal today and I will think over what we can have you do?"

"I suppose that could work for me," Gabriella replied, contemplating the offer.

"Good, because I wasn't actually asking you."

Gabriella giggled her thanks and went to sit down next to Kelsi. She found Kelsi sitting in the middle of the auditorium next to somebody else she wasn't sure she recognized. _'Did Martha dye her hair blonde?'_ she wondered to herself as she recalled where she had last left off with her story.

Plopping into the seat, Gabriella resumed her seemingly endless story. "Sorry about that. Anyway, back to my story. That's when we realized that we had to put all our survival skills to test. I decided to fix the camp site as she went out in search of food. Unfortunately, I think she was eaten because she never returned."

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Gabriella jumped at the sound of Sharpay's voice. _'How did she and Kelsi do that?'_

"Sharpay? I thought you were Kelsi! My bad," Gabriella laughed nervously, praying that Sharpay would let this moment slide without too much yelling and bloodshed. Standing quickly, Gabriella scooted over to where she saw Kelsi actually sitting, at the piano.

"Wow, I hope I never do that again!" She sighed as she joined Kelsi. With a deep breath, Gabriella decided it was high time for her to finish her story.

_

* * *

Gabriella had been huddling at her make-shift campsite for a day and a half. She didn't want to leave in case Cassandra ever returned with the food. Unfortunately, with each passing minute she became increasingly convinced that Cassandra was forever gone. Allowing her hunger to invade her thoughts, Gabriella tried unsuccessfully to distract herself. Sitting on a tree stump, she hugged her knees and softly sang to herself a song by her favorite artist ("Baby come back to me, in my heart I still believe, we were meant to be..."). Of course, instead of thinking about Troy, as was the norm for her, she was longing for Cassandra to return with some form of food._

_Suddenly, as if directly out of her imagination, Gabriella smelled the wonderful aromas of a roasting turkey. Stomach flipping from the reminder of just how empty it really was, she plugged her nose and tried to tell herself that it was all an illusion. Who would be roasting a turkey in the middle of the jungle?_

_Unfortunately, Gabriella had been blessed with an overactive sense of curiosity. And when that smell didn't dissipate, Gabriella felt that anxious tingling in her fingers that she always felt when she knew there is a fascinating mystery to solve. Forgetting about her hunger, and instead focusing on the most logical and precise way to uncover 'The Mystery of the Mysterious Fragrance', she stood and cautiously crept through the underbrush in search of a fire._

_Not ten minutes later, Gabriella stumbled across a clearing where a small, one room wood cabin sat. The lights were off but there was smoke emitting through the chimney, clueing Gabriella into the source of her mystery scent. Forgetting her manners, Gabriella ran to the door, grasped the handle and barged her way in without as much as a tap on the door to warn of her entrance._

_Once inside, Gabriella slammed the door closed and took a look around. Whoever had been cooking the turkey must have just left. The fire had been doused, leaving the overwhelming scent of burn and ash along with the excess smoke from the embers. Turning the lights on, Gabriella gasped when she saw how the room was decorated. Covering every inch of wall were pictures. But they weren't just pictures of anything – they were all pictures of Sharpay. _

_On the wall closest to her was a large map of the world with pen marks and crosses covering its Continents. In black permanent marker somebody had written in obvious frustration considering the number of times it had been underlined, "Where are you Ashley?". Taking a step closer to examine said map, Gabriella saw that Albuquerque had been heavily circled with arrows pointing at it and the ironic statement "You are Here". The other marked cities (including London, England and Murmansk, Russia) had all been crossed out or ripped off the map._

_Leaving the map, Gabriella slowly followed the wall around in order to take a closer look at some of the photos that had been pinned up. The first one she stopped at was of Sharpay in an airport wearing a very bored expression. She had been dressed in a sea-blue sweatshirt with her hood pulled onto her head. Most of her face was covered by overly large sunglasses and behind her seemed to be a wall of people. Because the camera was focused so closely on Sharpay, all the background people were fuzzy and out of focus. Strangely, though, the Disney World Epcot Center hat on the man standing directly behind Sharpay was just as clear as she was, despite the man on whom it was sitting being nebulous beyond recognition._

_Taking one more step, Gabriella stopped in front of another photo. Gabriella couldn't quite understand when this could have possibly been taken. As all the others, this picture was dominated by Sharpay's figure, leaving the background elements to be very scarce and mostly blocked. In this particular image, Sharpay was wearing a gorgeous strapless, white dress. The photographer must have been slightly behind her because she was smiling at someone to the left of the frame and over her shoulder. Nobody else was in the picture with her. In fact, behind her was simply a blue wall with the Disney Channel Mickey Mouse symbol as the only decipherable image. Gabriella had no idea when Sharpay would have been at any sort of Disney film premier, but her family was rich. She supposed it could happen._

_Taking a couple more steps down, Gabriella stopped and focused in one more picture. This one was of Sharpay at Lava Springs. Gabriella recognized this, it was the day she, Taylor and Sharpay had actually spent the afternoon together after the Star Dazzle Talent Competition! Sharpay was wearing that amazing blue dress that Gabriella had been so jealous of but knew she didn't have the legs for. In fact, if Gabriella wasn't mistaken, her arm had made the photo. The rest of her had been cut off, because the photographer had been meticulously sure to get as close a shot of Sharpay as was possible, but she recognized the pink chunky bracelets on that tan arm. Whoever was tailing Sharpay had certainly been following her for a long while._

_Gabriella studied the pictures for a few more minutes before the severity of her situation hit her. She wasn't in just any cabin. This was obviously a cabin housing people with bad intentions. Stepping towards the door, eager to leave before anybody returned, Gabriella risked one more curious glance around the small room. That's when she read the phrase carved into the wood above the fireplace:_

_Terrorist Inc._

"_Shoot the Stars"_

* * *

Finishing her story, Gabriella watched Kelsi's reaction expectantly. Kelsi didn't look away from her sheet music. Picking up her pencil, she wrote something on the paper as she murmured "Mmm, really?" 

"Kelsi?"

"Oh, wow," she mumbled, still not looking up from her music.

"Did you hear me?"

"That's too bad," Kelsi was thinking so intently about her music that she didn't even realize Gabriella had stopped telling her story.

"HAS NO ONE BEEN LISTENING TO MY STORY?!" Gabriella shrieked, releasing all her fury as she jumped up from her seated position next to Kelsi. Kelsi flinched in surprise at Gabriella's outburst. "I SAID THAT SHARPAY IS WANTED BY A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!"

Panting, Gabriella slowly surveyed the room to watch everybody's reaction. _'Why aren't they more surprised?'_

After a short pause, Ms. Darbus finally addressed the distressed girl. "Gabriella, dear. I can see you are still not feeling well. I think it would be best if you go home now. We'll discuss your participation in this production tomorrow."

Continuing with the scrutiny of her peers, Gabriella felt sick over everybody's placid responses. It was almost as though they didn't believe her. Nodding her agreement to Ms. Darbus's suggestion, Gabriella picked up her book bag and slowly stepped out of the auditorium trying to understand how this wasn't big news to them.

Closing the big double doors, Gabriella leaned herself against them with her eyes closed as she took a deep soothing breath. _'I am no longer in the jungle. I am no longer in the jungle. I am no longer–'_

"Excuse me, miss?"

Gabriella snapped her eyes open at the sound of a hoarse male whisper in her ear. Standing in front of her was a very tired looking man dressed all in black including a bullet proof vest. He looked as though he had spent the past twenty four hours in physical combat; he had the sweat stains to support that notion. "My name is Jack Bauer and I'm a federal agent," he panted, clearly winded. "I couldn't help but to over hear what you screamed in that room because I was holding my ear to the door. I believe that I am going to have to trust you. You will be of great help to us."

"Us?" Gabriella asked. That wasn't really the question she was most concerned about, but that was the question that came out.

"Me and my partners back in CTU. Counter Terrorist Unit." He obliged.

"Terrorist!" Gabriella exclaimed. So somebody did believe her!

"Yes," Jack agreed. "Now, we have reason to believe that there is a group that have been hired to kill the pop star Ashley Tisdale, but we have since-"

"No, you're wrong!" Gabriella interrupted. "They aren't after Ashley Tisdale, they're after Sharpay Evans. I found their hide-out and they have the entire place covered in pictures of her. She's a very rich classmate of mine." She quickly explained at Jack's quizzical expression.

"Are you sure?" He asked as he reached into his side satchel bag and pulled out an envelope.

"Oh, yes, absolutely," Gabriella responded confidently.

Pulling out two pictures, Jack handed them to Gabriella. "This is who we believe they are contracted to kill. Can you positively I.D. this girl as Sharpay Evans?"

Gabriella took the pictures and looked at them curiously. She was surprised to see that they were two of the same pictures that the terrorists had posted on their walls. One was Sharpay at the premier and the other was her at Lava Springs. Gabriella nodded as she studied the pictures.

Just as she was about to verbally express her affirmation, the door behind her opened and out stepped Troy.

"Hey Gabby. I just wanted to see if you were OK," He said, the concern evident in his voice.

Gabriella smiled up at him. "Yeah, don't worry about me, I'm fine." An awkward silence fell between them as Gabriella fidgeted with the pictures while looking at her feet nervously and Troy tapped his finger on the auditorium door that he was half hiding behind. Unsure of what else to say, Gabriella decided she'd better introduce Jack. Turning around she started to speak but faltered when she saw that Jack had disappeared. Turning back towards Troy, she laughed nervously as Troy fixed her with a concerned expression.

"You know what? Never mind. You should probably get back in there. I don't want Ms. Darbus to yell at you on my account." She said to him flashing him one of her smiles. Troy laughed and closed the door, returning to rehearsal.

"I think I've seen that boy before." Jack mused more to himself than to Gabriella from his former position behind her.

Gabriella turned around to find Jack standing in front of her again. Her mouth dropped open in shock. "How did you? I turned around and you were. But now you're. I must be going crazy."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Jack laughed. "I just grabbed onto this protruding water pipe on the ceiling and pulled myself above your eyesight. Works every time!"

"I need to sit down." Gabriella muttered holding her hand gingerly to her forehead.

Unfortunately, before she could do anything to remove herself from this overwhelming situation, Jack jumped back up to the ceiling and the auditorium door opened for the second time. Popping his head out again, Troy looked at Gabriella's weary demeanor and inquired, "Hey Gabs, sorry, I was just curious- why are you holding pictures of Sharpay Evans and Ashley Tisdale?"

**

* * *

Cue ominous music...**

**Now we have it! The big mystery that we didn't know there was. I didn't reveal it earlier because, for the most part, this story is being presented to you the way it is being presented to Sharpay. Therefore, neither you nor she even knew that there was a mystery over who's trying to kill her and why. But now you know. I have a bunch of clues as to who and why in my other chapters. If you ever get bored one day you can re-read and speculate. I know, fun fun.**

**Well, you've read the chapter, you know what to do next.**


	15. The Confession

**All I can really say is: two 9-hour flights is a lot of time to plan and write my stories.**

**Disclaimer: Same as always. I don't own High School Musical or its characters. I don't own 24 or its characters. I do own the terrorists though...**

* * *

The Confession

"Jack, you should probably take a look at this," a stout, bald man said. His attention was fully absorbed by the website that was being displayed on the computer screen in front of him, which happened to be the only source of light in the small room.

Jack groaned from where he was lying on the couch to this man's side. "I swear to you Morris, if it is another picture of your baby picking his nose, I will hit you. And I mean it this time," He grumbled, his words slightly muffled by his hand, which was vigorously rubbing his face in an attempt to wake his mind to a more attentive state than it was currently in considering his sleep deprivation.

"Oh, it is definitely not the baby," Morris replied ominously. Upon hearing his partners' tone of voice, Jack sat up on the couch, suddenly more alert.

"Well? What is it?" he asked after a moments' silence. The anticipation was too much for his weary mind to take and he was already getting annoyed with Morris's obstinate behavior.

Finally cooperating, Morris turned to Jack with a maniacal grin on his face as he calmly replied, "I've found the terrorist's webpage."

Jack stared at Morris in uncertainty until the information he'd just received at last processed through his slow moving brain. "You what?" Jack gasped in surprise, immediately jumping from his seated position and darting to Morris's side to take a look at the screen. Face illuminated in an eerie yellow, Jacks eyes hungrily scanned the page that was being displayed on the screen. He quietly read the URL address aloud before he took a seat next to Morris and began studying the website.

* * *

"I don't think Coach Bolton likes me very much." Sharpay announced to Ryan as they both stepped out of his car in front of East High. They were about to embark on yet another day of school but Sharpay's thoughts were instead teeming with insecurities over the possibility that somebody didn't like her. She had, of course, conveniently forgotten that her old self was a cruel, egotistical control freak who had spent more energy on thinking up insults than on making friends. 

"Why do you say that?" Ryan asked as they mounted the steps outside the front of the large school.

Looking off into the distance, Sharpay thought back to a moment that took place a week ago...

---

_Pulling up in front of Troy's house, Sharpay vigorously jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut. Eager to tell Troy about the latest memory she'd just recalled, she broke into a run in order to reach his door step faster. Fumbling through her purse she pulled out a key and quickly shoved it into the key hole. This was no time for pleasantries; she'd just have to apologize for not knocking after she relayed the memory._

_Bursting through the front door, Sharpay stumbled over a pair of shoes and inadvertently landed in the adjacent entertainment room after a comedic display of stumbling and grabbing at large pieces of furniture in order to catch herself. Grasping onto the back of the couch, Sharpay turned to Coach Bolton who was lounging on that very same couch, to apologize for intruding. Unfortunately, the picture on the television set caught her eye before any words had made it from her head to her mouth._

_On the screen was a group of teenage actors, all smiling and dancing as they sang a happy song about how wonderful life always turns out to be. Sharpay grimaced and returned her attention to the Coach. Only then did she notice the tears he was trying to hide from her._

_Sharpay struggled to hold back a snort of laughter as she thought in surprise, _'Who would have guessed? Coach secretly watches poorly performed Disney Channel Musicals.'

_Sharpay tried to pretend she hadn't just discovered the big dark secret of East High's ruggedly masculine basketball coach and instead attempted to express another apology. Unfortunately, she only got one "Um" out before she burst into laughter and ran from the room to find Troy, all thoughts about her newly recovered memory washed cleanly away._

_---_

Being called back to the present by Ryan's repetition of his question, Sharpay replied, "Oh, no reason. I just haven't seen him around school for a while is all. I feel like he's hiding from me." 

Ryan laughed. "Don't be ridiculous! Coach Bolton has no reason to hide from you!"

"If only," Sharpay mumbled to herself, averting her gaze to the ground.

The twins continued on into the school, participating in lighthearted conversation and discussion of their plans for the day. Neither was aware of the two pairs of eyes that were following their every move.

* * *

After stopping by their lockers, Ryan and Sharpay casually meandered into homeroom just as the bell rang. Those same two pairs of eyes watched them as they took their seats, quietly discussing musical theatre. In actuality, Ryan was quizzing Sharpay on her newly reacquired musical theatre knowledge, but to the ignorant observant they looked as though they were simply partaking in a light discussion on that topic. 

Sitting in their usual seats, Ryan and Sharpay remained blissfully unaware of the subtle changes that immediately took place around them. It wasn't until Zeke loudly addressed Sharpay, effectively interrupting Ryan's critique of her description of the beauty shop scene in Legally Blonde the Broadway Musical, that either twin realized they were not surrounded by the normal set of students.

"Sharpay!" Zeke exclaimed excitedly, leaning across Ryan's desk to gain a better view of her.

Setting her face in her practiced imitation of old Sharpay's icy glare, she slowly shifted her eyes past Ryan to meet Zeke's. "Can't you see I'm talking to my brother here?" she demanded in an intimidating tone.

Zeke was somewhat thrown by Sharpay's abrupt return to callousness when addressing him but he didn't let it deter his intent. Had he not spent an afternoon with her watching a movie not two weeks ago?

Seeing her opportunity through Sharpay's distraction with Zeke, Gabriella leaned forward in imitation of Zeke's posture. She succeeded in clumsily obtaining Ryan's attention with a hand wave and a "Hey Ryan!" followed by a giggle which was her way of apologizing for her unnaturally harsh tone.

Ryan easily hid his annoyance behind a pleasant smile and turned to Gabriella in response to her beckoning.

The subsequent combination of conversations happened so rapidly and sounded so sporadic that any person who wasn't specifically participating in the conversations would have heard it like this:

Zeke: Sharpay! Do you want a cookie?

Gabriella: Hey Ryan! Were you and Sharpay just talking about Legally Blonde the Broadway Musical?

Ryan: Uh, yeah. Why do you ask?

Sharpay: Ew! I don't eat cookies, remember?

Gabriella: I absolutely _love_ that musical! I saw it with my mom when we were in New York. You know, my cousin is an extra in it. Actually, you remind me a lot of my cousin, now that I think about it. He loved to sing and dance, too.

Zeke: Right. I forgot about the no cookie thing. Anyway, I just wanted to apologize, again, for Saturday.

Ryan: An extra, you say? Gee Gabby, that is truly fascinating stuff.

Sharpay: What about Saturday?!

Zeke: I'm sorry for having to work. Why? What did you think I was talking about?

Gabriella: I know. But I'm not allowed to talk to him anymore.

Sharpay: Huh? I, uh, nothing! I knew exactly what you were referring to.

Ryan: You're not allowed to talk to him? Why's that?

Gabriella: Because he's gay. Those are some nice shoes you've got on, by the way.

Zeke: So, did you hear about that bombing in the city over the weekend?

Sharpay: Yeah...What about it?

Ryan: Thanks! They're Italian.

Zeke: Oh! Uh, nothing. It's just scary, is all. So, what did you end up doing Saturday, anyway?

Sharpay: Hm? Why do you care so much?!

Gabriella: My cousin _always_ wore Italian shoes!

Ryan: Uh...

As Ms. Darbus stood up, about to call the class to attention for the morning announcements, these two conversations quickly died away leaving five people with distinctly different reactions.

Following her conversation with Ryan, Gabriella felt she'd gathered all the proof she needed to confirm her greatest fear. She immediately knew that it was now her sole responsibility to save Ryan from the same fate of her Cousin. The one issue that occupied her brain was coming up with a plan to "scare Ryan straight", as it were. By the end of homeroom, she was pretty sure she'd come up with a strategy that would work. The only problem was she'd have to break up with Troy...

Ryan replayed his conversation with Gabriella over in his mind. Was she really trying to imply that he was gay? He knew he'd kept that distinction deliberately vague to his peers, as he enjoyed the sense of mystery that surrounded him because of it. Plus, peoples reaction to this uncertainty tended to plainly reveal their prejudices related to sexual orientation and, as a self-professed liberal, he liked knowing what type of a person he was dealing with. But he had thought that all the speculation had disappeared after getting caught with Kelsi in a Lava Springs custodial closet...

Sharpay sat back in her seat with an uneasy feeling. She realized that Zeke had been asking perfectly innocent questions but any reminder of the bombing Saturday night seemed to always make her anxious. After all, if everything had gone according to plan that day, she'd be dead right now. But Zeke didn't know that. And it's not like he'd been purposefully trying to disturb her with those questions. Sharpay sat there, silently chastising herself for being so paranoid. That was Ryan's job...

Zeke turned in his chair to face the front of the room. He prided himself on never even registering on Ms. Darbus's radar and he wasn't about to change that fact. He was, admittedly, irritated that Sharpay so obviously avoided every question he'd posed to her but he shoved those emotions aside. He didn't believe in emotions changing his behavior and thought patterns. He considered that to be a weakness and Zeke Baylor was in no way weak. It was with this ability to compartmentalize his emotions that allowed him to remain so unsuccessfully persistent in gaining Sharpay's attention. After a year, he'd finally made some progress with her and he wasn't going to let any display of annoyance detract from that development...

Sitting two rows behind those four, Troy had been silently listening in on both conversations. Smiling to himself, he stifled his laughter at what had been, in his opinion, the two most amusing displays of discomfort that he had ever witnessed.

* * *

Sharpay walked into the auditorium at the end of the day holding her breath. Her conversation with Zeke that morning was still bothering her and she desperately wanted to talk it out with somebody. Problem being, she only had two choices to fill that role of 'somebody' and neither options were desirable. She, of course, had Ryan but she already knew what he'd tell her. She was overreacting to something that hadn't actually happened and she should just forget about it. _'If I could forget about it, I wouldn't have approached you in the first place, Ryan!'_ she thought. 

Her other option was Troy. And, even though she knew he'd listen, she wasn't ready to talk to him just yet. She had developed such strong feelings for him; she wasn't willing to run the risk of getting hurt. It would just devastate her if she did get hurt by him. So her solution, at least temporarily, was to avoid the entire situation by not talking to him. And she was not going to compromise her resolve for a single bad feeling resulting from a meaningless conversation. Just because she'd had this same bad feeling after the convention center blew up certainly didn't mean that the two events were related.

Stepping onto the stage, the burning in her lungs reminded her that she had yet to release her lungful of air. Gasping, she paused to control her breathing pattern before she pulled out her _Lysistrata_ script to quietly read over her lines. Settling herself on the edge of the stage, Sharpay allowed her legs to swing over the side as she opened her script to page one.

She was studying her lines so intently she didn't even hear the footsteps approaching her from behind, nor did she notice the figure as he joined her on the edge of the stage, watching her read.

"Sharpay?" Troy softly asked.

Sharpay started out of her reading at the sound of another person's voice but, upon her realization that it was Troy, she kept her eyes focused on the script.

Troy waited for a response but, with a twinge of sadness, he realized she wasn't going to acknowledge him. Briefly considering leaving her in peace, his desire to tell her everything he was feeling convinced him to the contrary. And, despite the fact that she wasn't looking at him, he could tell by her lack of eye movement that she wasn't reading anymore.

He gave her a couple more seconds to change her mind and say something, anything, before he sighed and began with what he was sure would be the most difficult speech he'd ever had to give. And that's including the three page monologue he had to recite before ending the first act of _Twinkle Towne_.

"Sharpay? Look, I know you aren't talking to me right now and I don't blame you. I've been hot and cold on you more than . . . um . . . well, more than anything that switches from hot to cold a lot. Wait, I'm not explaining myself very well. Let me start over," Troy took a deep breath and recomposed himself before trying again.

"Sharpay. I like you. A lot. Actually, no. That's a lie." He sighed, nerves overtaking his being. With new resolve, he cleared his mind and finally said the words he had been so afraid of. "I feel more than just like for you. I love you. And I'm worried about you. And I admire you. And I want to protect you from whatever it is that is making us both so nervous and don't you even try to say you don't feel like something's wrong because I heard your conversation with Zeke, this morning. I just need to tell you how sorry I am for every time I mistreated you.

"You see, before now I was fighting everything that you had brought into my life and I was trying to ignore everything you made me feel. Before now I had my future all set. I was going to go to U of A with Gabriella. She was going to study and major in some science related field, I was going to pass just enough of my classes to be allowed to play basketball. When we graduated, I was going to propose, she was going to accept and we were going to finish our lives blissfully in each others company.

"But then the new you came along. The new you who was actually the real person behind the old you; a person I briefly met at Lava Springs last summer, which I know you don't remember. But, after our accident, the real you became the dominant personality in the new you and I finally got the chance to hang with the real you whenever I wanted - well, whenever you were talking to me. And that completely trashed my predetermined future.

"Before you, I was content with that future. But after you, I've realized that it's not good enough for either of us. Sure, Gabby and I would have made a comfortable life together, but it would have been God awful boring. Did you know, our only fight was over you? Other than that? Nothing. There's no passion between Gabby and I like there is between you and I. Gabby and I are just comfortable. And I don't want my life to forever be comfortable, you know?

"I want a future with you. I want to enjoy life with you. I want to share your successes and be the one you go to when you fail. I want to spend quiet evenings in front of the television with you and I want to endlessly bicker over which movieto rent with you. But most of all, I want to kiss you." Troy paused, shocked by how much he had just said. He had definitely not been planning on that but, once he'd started, he just couldn't stop. It was cathartic.

He watched Sharpay's reaction to all that he had just professed but she was carefully holding her face in a very stoic expression. Troy was disappointed by this but he wasn't surprised. Taking one more deep breath, he prepared himself to finish with the apparent expelling of his every thought.

"Well, all that being said," he continued confidently, "I am still with Gabriella right now and I don't want you to feel pressured or coerced by me. So, I refuse to hear any response to this from you. I just had to tell you all of this for my own sake. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go break up with my girlfriend. And when that's done, I fully intend to spend my every waking moment working on winning you back." Without waiting for the response that he knew she wouldn't give, Troy stood and ambled out of the auditorium with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. His heart was beating abnormally fast and his palms were excessively sweaty. It was the best he'd felt in weeks.

Back in the auditorium, Sharpay was frozen, still staring at the same page of her script. But all thought of memorizing lines was long gone. She sat there with wide eyes, in complete shock. Slowly, a delirious smile crept its way onto her face, complementing the unusually warm feeling that had spread from the pit of her stomach throughout her entire body.

* * *

At that very moment, not far away in a previously abandoned log cabin that was sitting in the middle of the Country Clubs five acre park, a gangly man with too much hair on his arms answered his cell phone. 

"Well? What did you find out?" he barked into the receiver. He paused as he listened to the response on the other end of the line.

Suddenly, his expression grew dangerously dark. "What do you mean you didn't find anything out? I thought you were supposed to be one of the best agents available! How is it that the best agent available has failed us on multiple occasions?" Reluctantly, he quieted for a second time to listen to this agents' explanation of his behavior.

With an angry growl, he whispered threateningly, "Well, it's not your ass on the line, is it? If we fuck this up one more time, it's me who **The Boss** will come after. Now, get it right!" And with that, the man slammed his phone shut and hurled it with all his might across the small room where it hit the map of the world that was pinned to the wall and fell to the floor, smashing into tiny pieces

He was hired by **The Boss** to kill Ashley Tisdale and he wasn't going to let some idiot agent who he hadn't even chosen to work with ruin everything. Sitting down at the three legged table, the fourth leg having been kicked off in a previous fit of anger, this dark man started writing out his own plan to accomplish the mission he was tasked with over a year ago. A plan that did not include this stupid agent of his.

---

**Uh oh, the terrorists are starting to fight. That never turns out well.**

**So, I'm a major loser and that website that Morris and Jack were looking at is an actual website that I randomly spent WAY too much time on. Now that the government is watching my every move, you should probably check it out to justify my efforts. I have a link for it in my profile. **

**terroristinc (dot) org (at) gmail (dot) com is also, now, an actual e-mail. Its the "terrorists" e-mail. but feel free to use it if you want to contact me or whatever. I know we have PM's but I had to create an e-mail to create the webpage anyway, so I figured that would be a good use for it.**

**If the two conversation part confuses you, you can just go through and read the exchanges as Ryan/Gabriella (ignoring any Zeke/Sharpay lines) and vise versa.**

**Well, as always, I've worked very hard on this and would appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks!**


	16. Deductive Reasoning

**Disclaimer: Wow, lets see. I don't own High School Musical. I don't own Saved. I don't own 24. I don't own Life with Derek. I don't own Hannah Montana. And I don't own Coupling. I do, however, own Gabriella's crazy personality.**

* * *

Deductive Reasoning

Stepping through the glass door, Troy hastily glanced around the eclectic, hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. This was where Troy had taken Gabriella on their first date. _'Isn't it ironic?'_ he thought bitterly. Finally, he spotted her in the far corner, slightly hidden behind an ornamental hanging lamp. She was sitting on a faded purple arm chair absentmindedly sipping a frozen latté as she watched a small group of men dressed entirely in black as they furiously debated in hushed tones. Troy's heart started to beat a little faster and his palms dampened with a thin layer of sweat. Nervously wiping his hands on the sides of his pants, he took a deep breath and started to approach her. It wasn't until he was sitting in the seat opposite her that her attention was pulled away from the dark men.

"Thanks for, uh, meeting me here, Gabriella," he said in a voice slightly higher than its regular pitch. Clearing his throat, he tried to restore his voice back to normal. Unfortunately, as soon as his next words came out it was clear that he had been unsuccessful. "We really need to talk," he timidly continued.

Gabriella met his gaze and easily returned his anxious expression with a reassuring smile. "I agree," she chirped, perching herself on the edge of the armchair cushion attentively.

Troy took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do. As much as he needed to break up with Gabriella, he was not in the least thrilled about going through the actual formality of breaking up with her. In fact, the last time he'd done this was in the fifth grade. Her name was Casey. Casey MacDonald. They had gotten married under the jungle gym during afternoon recess. It was a beautiful ceremony; all his friends had been there. Unfortunately, by the time the school day was over, Troy had been much more interested in putting fake worms in Sally Waller's sandwiches. The subsequent conversation with Casey did not go well. Let's just say, Casey certainly doesn't punch like a girl and Troy's nose was the first to figure that out.

Shaking his head in an attempt to remove that unpleasant memory, Troy cleared his throat before saying, "Listen, Gabriella–"

"I think we need to break up," Gabriella blurted out, interrupting Troy's practiced and articulated words. Startled, Troy threw his hand protectively in front of his nose and squenched his eyes shut before he even attempted to comprehend what Gabriella had just said. Taking a moment to let her words sink in, he slowly lowered his hand and opened his eyes in astonishment. "What?" he gasped in dismay, "But, why?"

In a patronizingly compassionate manner, Gabriella placed a steady hand over Troy's and said, "It's just that we haven't been the same for a while now. It's like we were only together out of habit and not because of any feelings. Also," she continued flippantly with a toss of her hair, "there's this thing that God wants me to do that I can't perform until we're broken up."

Troy stared at her in utter confusion. "Are you becoming a nun?" he asked accusingly.

Gabriella laughed, "If only! But no, they don't allow us to make that decision for a couple more years."

"But you're breaking up with me for God." It wasn't a question, though Gabriella still nodded in affirmation.

"I'm so sorry," she sighed, not sounding remotely sorry. "I hope this hasn't come as too much of a surprise. The last thing I want to do is hurt you!" Eyebrows furrowed in feigned concern, Gabriella decided to stop talking and instead watch Troy's reaction.

He sat in his chair lost in thought as his gaze fell on the still arguing group of men. Suddenly, as if awoken by a silent alarm, his thoughtful gaze dissipated and he started to laugh. Still adopting a concerned expression, Gabriella tried to comfort Troy as he was obviously delirious with heartache. "That's right," she said soothingly, "just get it all out of your system." Troy knew she was taking the wrong impression from his reaction but he couldn't seem to stop himself. Not only had _she_ been the one to break up with _him_ but she blamed God for it!

Calming down enough to control his laughter, Troy looked Gabriella dead in the eyes and with a small grin replied, "Gabriella? I feel exactly the same way."

* * *

Turning to Morris with a quizzical expression, Jack's intense frustration was evident in his eyes. Morris simply shook his head in response before averting his gaze to the same computer screen that he'd spent the past three day's staring at. Defeated, Jack released his posture as he slumped back into his uncomfortable plastic chair. Glancing at the clock mounted on the wall, he saw that it read seven o'clock. He didn't know whether that was morning or night and, frankly, he no longer cared.

Standing to stretch his cramped legs, Jack approached the photos of Ashely – er – Sharpay, or...well, whoever this girl actually is, and studied them in search of any missed clues. Unfortunately, he and Morris had already spent hours studying these pictures and by this point he could recreate them flawlessly in his head. If there were any missed clues, they were invisible to him.

Annoyed that they had been working on this case for so long without making any headway, Jack turned his back to the pictures and took a moment to glance around the small office that they were currently camped out in. There were empty food wrappers crumpled on the floor around the trash bin and littering the already cluttered desk. Half drunken coffee cups were strewn about, residing on every available surface. The door was bolted securely shut and the blinds were drawn, dimming the room dramatically. And the smell. Dear Lord, the smell! If there was one discovery made from this experience, it was that locking two men in an enclosed space with nothing but vending machine meals and an overabundance of coffee resulted in an odor that is bound to be toxic to small animals and children.

"So, what do we do now?" Morris asked, forcing Jack out of his wandering contemplation.

With a frown, Jack replied grimly, "We use the girl."

* * *

The sun outside was slowly making its decent, causing the light inside Sharpays bedroom to gradually dim to an eerie gloom. Feeling it fit her mood perfectly she decided to not turn any lights on. Instead, she threw herself onto her bed in a fit of self-pity.

She'd hardly been lying for five minutes before a knock sounded at her door. Rolling over so that her back faced the door, Sharpay refused to answer. Hopefully, whoever is knocking will think she's asleep and leave her alone. She wasn't so lucky.

When she didn't respond, Ryan callously swung her door wide open and barged right into her room. Reaching down, he flicked on her lamp and cheerily proclaimed, "Time to get up Shar!"

Sharpay groaned in disgust.

"Oh, get over it. So what, he hasn't called? You are a strong, independent woman who never needed a man – or boy, in Troy's case – to maintain your self-esteem. Now, get your ass up, we are going to practice some memory techniques!" Grabbing her arm, Ryan forcibly pulled his sister to a sitting position. Holding her chin in his hand, he leaned down to be eye-level with her. Giving her the kind of encouraging nod that only seems to work coming from a brother, Ryan intuitively convinced her to forget about any social problems that were currently plaguing her mind and instead focus on what was truly important. Her memory.

Without saying another word, Ryan stood and left the room knowing that Sharpay would follow shortly. Just as she was standing up to leave, the sudden blare of her phone ringer caused her to hesitate.

'_Bop bop bop_

_Bop to the top...'_

Looking at the I.D. screen uncertainly, Sharpay saw Troy's name clearly displayed. Her breath caught in her throat. This was it. This was the moment she'd been waiting for. But now that it had finally come, her thoughts were scourged with doubts as to his intent. Surely he'd have called earlier if he had meant what he'd said in the auditorium. This was probably a guilt phone call to inform her that he'd made a fatal error and was not, in fact, going to break up with Gabriella. "Jackass," Sharpay muttered as she silenced her ringer and walked out of her bedroom in pursuit of her dependable and true to his word brother.

* * *

Sitting on her front porch, Gabriella double checked the phone number she was about to call and hastily punched it into her phone. She listened as it rung once. Twice. _'Please don't answer, please don't answer, please don't answer,'_

"_Hola, mis amigos! You are calling the phone of the fabulous Ryan Evans."_

Gabriella threw her hand up in triumph. "Excellent result!"

"_I'm obviously not here right now so leave an interesting message and maybe I'll get back to you!"_

Taking a deep breath, Gabriella looked at her sheet of notebook paper on which she'd written exactly what she wanted to say. She had not expected to feel this nervous but if God's tasks were easy, anybody could do them. Right?

Hoping her voice would sound steady despite her overexcited nerves, Gabriella took one last glance at her sheet of notes before deciding that it would be better to speak from the heart. Crumpling the paper in her free hand, she squeezed her eyes shut and started to record her message:

"Ryan! Hey, I was just, uh, just wondering, um, d-do you, do you ever go out? Because I go out! Sometimes. Now and then. Heh, um, out I go." Gabriella paused, completely horrified at what she was saying. It was like somebody else had control over her tongue, she just couldn't stop talking!

"I'm, uh, I'm awful at asking people out, though. I say the stupidest things, I put people off. Nobody will get near me for all the crap I'm talking! I'm an impregnable fortress and you're full of sperm!" Just as the word came out of her mouth, Gabriella froze. What on Earth possessed her to say that? Gabriella's breath started coming in jagged gasps as the horror of her situation kept growing.

"No, sorry, I-I didn't mean – I meant what I said before. I'm, uh, terrible at asking people out. Thank God I'm not asking you out! Heh, thank God . . . Good ol' God. Yeah, OK! See you later." Gabriella quickly hung up her phone with a dazed expression. Did she really just do that?

Disgusted, Gabriella dropped her head into her hands and moaned at her own stupidity.

It was at this exact moment that a black Escalade came barreling down her street and screeching to a halt directly in front of Gabriella's house. Looking up in surprise, Gabriella didn't have any time to comprehend her surroundings before two men, each wearing bullet proof vests and pointing guns at the ground, came running over to her. Grabbing hold of her arm, the stronger of the two yanked her into their SUV, ignoring her screamed protests.

* * *

"Um, four?" Sharpay asked, knowing she'd get yet another question wrong.

Ryan sighed and threw down the card. "No," he quipped. "Sharpay, go listen to that message. I can't stand working on this with you when all you're doing is obsessing about something else entirely."

"No!" Sharpay adamantly protested. "I'm not an insecure girl who needs a boy – I mean, man, because Troy's a man – to make me feel good about myself!"

Ryan rolled his eyes, "No, but you are a curious girl who wants to know what sort of message was left on her phone." Ryan gave her an assenting nod to let her know that he wasn't judging her. Besides, he had his own message he wanted to listen to.

With an excited squeal, Sharpay clapped her hands and ran back to her room to grab her phone. Dialing the code to her voicemail she waited with baited breath for the message to run. About half-way through the memory exercise that she and Ryan were working on she had decided that Troy's message was actually going to be a good one. There was no logical reasoning behind this new decision, of course, it just fit with her better mood. But, ever since that decision had been made, she hadn't been able to focus on anything but his message; still lingering in her voicemail, unheard by anybody except possibly the government, depending on whether or not she decided to believe those claims.

"Hey Sharpay!" Troy said into the phone, breathless with what Sharpay hoped to be excitement. "Great news! I finally did it! Well, sort of. Ok, not technically, but that's a long story. The point is, Gabriella and I are no more. Kaput. Finite. Finished. Done. And any other synonym that you can come up with. Anyway, I was hoping you'd meet me in the park tonight. Say, around ten? I've got a surprise for you. Hopefully you get this message. Later."

Sharpay looked at the clock. It was nine. She had an hour to get cute. That was not nearly enough time! Shouting down the hallway to Ryan that she was going out, she slammed her door shut and swung her closet open. What to wear, what to wear?

* * *

"You mean to tell me that two highly trained government operatives who have spent the past few weeks tracking and observing terrorists, operatives who have found and studied the terrorists website no less, are _still _unable to figure out what their main objective is?" Gabriella asked in bewilderment. She'd had so much more faith in her government before she met these two men.

Jack and Morris had been the two men who'd kidnapped her from her front porch. It had taken them almost the entire drive to get Gabriella to stop screaming, but once she remembered who Jack was she was as pleasant as ever. The three were just arriving at the temporary CTU headquarters that Jack and Morris were working out of as they finished explaining to Gabriella their situation. Their temporary headquarters was actually an abandoned office building that they had broken into and set up surveillance equipment. Not the standard that they were used to, but good enough for now.

"Ah! Not exactly," Morris protested her accusatory statement, throwing a finger up as though he'd thought of something clever. Unfortunately, his thoughts ended there.

Jack rolled his eyes. "It's slightly more complicated than that," he explained condescendingly, as though he were talking to a child. The threesome had entered the office through the back door and were now settling into the room where Jack and Morris had the computer set up. Gabriella scrunched her nose at the subtle odor of sweat and sugar. Jack continued talking, "We know their main objective. To find and kill Ashley Tisdale. That is stated plain and simple on their website. Many times, actually. But this website has actually confused our understanding of their situation. You see, it appears as though the terrorists report to two different leaders–"

"Yes," Morris interjected while animatedly typing the terrorist's webpage address into the computers browser. "There is **The Boss**, which seems to be the main person they report to. This person directly communicates with them through this webpage and assigns them individual tasks. But they also appear to be working with a terrorist who was not originally in their group–"

"The agent, as they call him," Jack said, taking over the explanation once more. "It seems that, once they had followed Ashley or Sharpay here to Albuquerque, they found out that a terrorist from a different organization was already stationed here but not on active duty."

"So they made contact with this agent and activated him while, at the same time, integrating him into their own terrorist group." Morris concluded. He had the webpage pulled up, so he stood to allow Gabriella prime seating in order to study it.

"Right now," Jack said, putting his hand on Gabriella's shoulder and effectively passing off all the pressure of discovering these uncertainties unto the fragile-minded girl, "we need you to study this webpage and help us figure out the next piece to the puzzle." Gabriella audibly gulped as she returned her gaze to the computer screen in front of her.

* * *

Troy grabbed the bag of necessities that he'd just packed and ran out the door. He severely hoped that Sharpay had gotten his message. Jumping in his truck he went through his mental check list as he drove toward the park. Metal table and chairs? Check. Baguette? Check. Grape juice that is substituting for wine? Check. It looks like this is going to be a perfect first date.

* * *

Gabriella finally sat back in her chair. Both Morris and Jack noticed this and instantly came to attention. "Well?" they asked in unison, another unfortunate result of spending three days holed up in the same room.

"The way I see it," Gabriella began, speaking slowly and making sure to choose her words carefully, "we have three options for why the terrorists are here and targeting Sharpay. One," Gabriella held up one finger, "the Sharpay that I know and Ashley the pop star are one in the same and Sharpay actually leads a Hannah-Montana-like double life.

"Two," she held up another finger, "Sharpay conveniently claimed to have amnesia to cover the fact that the real Sharpay and Ashley have actually switched places.

"Or three," she held up a third finger, "the terrorists made a mistake, Sharpay does have amnesia, she and Ashley haven't switch places and they are in fact two separate people. Now, the only thing causing me to hesitate about this option is that these terrorists are smart. It seems unlikely to me that they would make such a mistake. I'm sorry I couldn't give you a more definitive answer but at least we've got it narrowed down to those three choices, right?" She finished optimistically.

"Absolutely. You've done well," Jack replied distractedly. He was already formulating a plan to figure out which of the three options is the truth. He stood for a moment, deep in thought. Gabriella simply watched him curiously. Suddenly, his face lit up and he announced, "The boy!"

"I'm sorry?" Gabriella asked, confused.

"That boy in your school. The one who talked to you. He could tell the difference between Ashley and Sharpay!"

"Yeah, that was weird, wasn't it?" Gabriella snorted, not understanding the point that Jack was getting at. Jack gave Gabriella a brief look of disgust but quickly transferred his gaze to Morris who was following the same train of thought.

Gabriella noticed the look pass between the men. She didn't like this sense of exclusion. After having provided them with such valuable information, Gabriella figured it was just right for her to know what was going on. Looking between Morris and Jack she timidly asked, "So, what do we do now?"

With a malevolent grin, Morris replied, "We use the boy."

* * *

Troy was just placing the candles on the small, wrought-iron outdoor table when a loud screeching of wheels caught his attention. Seeing a black Escalade stopped half on the grass, Troy's stomach flipped. _'This is never good'_ he thought with a sinking feeling as he watched two men, both very sweaty and weary looking, jump out of the Escalade wearing black, bullet proof vests. They were carrying guns pointed at the ground and they were shouting at him to come peacefully as they hurriedly approached. The sturdier of the two reached him first and unceremoniously grabbed his arm, yanking him toward the SUV. Troy fancied himself a relatively strong guy but, after considering the size of this man, there was no way he was going to resist.

* * *

Sharpay ran out the front door and down her driveway with exhilarated energy. Unfortunately, her heals caused this energy to run out by the time she reached the curb but her exhilaration was still there. Pausing to allow a speeding black SUV to pass, Sharpay crossed the street and approached the park where Troy had told her he'd be.

Walking along the path, Sharpay quickly came upon a small outdoor table, fully set with plates, cups and silverware. There were even two candles sitting in the middle, though one had toppled over. Sharpay smiled to herself as she picked up the fallen candle and replaced it in the center of the table. She then sat in one of the chairs, happily expecting Troy to show up at any moment.

* * *

Troy sat in the same seat that Gabriella had previously been sitting in. Now it was his turn to listen to and digest the facts about the terrorists. He did not take the information quite as calmly as Gabriella had.

"There are people trying to KILL Sharpay?!"

"Well, technically, possibly no. But that's why we have you here," Jack replied irritatingly unperturbed. "Evidently, you are the only person who can see the physical difference between Ashley and Sharpay and that will help us narrow down our situational options."

Troy took a deep breath. "Ok, fine. Can we do this quickly? Give me the first option again."

"Why is that, by the way?" Gabriella piped up from her position in the far corner of the dark, small, smelly room.

"Um, so that I can help you guys narrow this down," Troy replied derisively. Honestly, Gabriella was the last person he wanted to be locked in a tiny room with at the moment and he was not in the mood to answer her stupid questions.

"Well, duh! I meant, how can you tell the difference between them?"

"Oh!" Troy exclaimed but quickly paused to think it over. _'What _is_ the difference between them?' _he wondered. "I don't really know. It's like they have slightly different airs about them and I can somehow detect it in the picture," Troy shrugged. "Or maybe it's just because Sharpay uses Dove conditioner and it makes her hair a whole lot shinier than Ashley's." he added, more as an afterthought.

"Enough chitchat," Jack bellowed. "We need to figure this out!"

Gabriella snorted again. She didn't know what it was, but something about Jack's behavior just seemed so ridiculous to her. She pushed the thought out of her head and made herself focus on the issues at hand. The first option, "Option one," she said to Troy, holding up one finger, "the Sharpay that we know and Ashley the pop star are actually the same person and Sharpay leads a Hannah-Montana-like double life."

"Well, that obviously can't be it," Troy said bluntly. "First, as we've already said, I can tell the difference between the two. If they were the same person, why would there be a difference? And second, it's just physically impossible. Sharpay was at Lava Springs, in our presence, at the same time that Ashley was at movie premiers and getting photographed by the paparazzi while grocery shopping. Maybe she's a good actress, but even she can't be in two places at once."

"So that rules out option two, as well?" Jack asked. "That, at some point around Sharpay's fall to amnesia, the two girls switched places?"

"I definitely would have noticed that. No, Sharpay and Ashley have never switched places."

"So that leaves us with option three." Gabriella said softly, more to herself than to the others in the room. "But that doesn't make sense. How did these terrorists make such a mistake?"

"I don't think they made a mistake at all." Troy said, looking at the computer screen once more.

"What do you mean?" Gabriella asked defensively.

"Well, this says that they were following a lead to Disney World when the informant diverted them to Albuquerque. There is no explanation for this abrupt alteration, just that the informant's information seemed to override their own. I think this informant knows exactly who Sharpay is and that she isn't Ashley. I think this informant is intentionally directing the other terrorists towards Sharpay, wanting them to think that she's Ashley in hiding. I think that this informant has an ulterior motive that the other terrorists are unaware of."

Troy's assumptions were followed by a brief silence as the other three considered what he'd said. Then, "Wow! Have you ever considered a job with the government, son? That was some fine deductive reasoning right there." Jack marveled. "Now all we need to do is figure out who this informant is."

"Well, according to the website, it's somebody in our school," Gabriella mused. "Who do we know at East High who arrived in October of last year?"

Troy's grip on the arm rest of his chair immediately tightened as he battled to keep calm. Face turning red from the anger that was so rapidly welling up inside of him, he looked at Gabriella and growled in a low whisper, "Zeke."

**

* * *

**

Oh my gosh, this turned out super long, didn't it?

**I tried really hard to explain everything so that it now makes sense and is all out in the open. Just so you know, all the conclusions that they came to are true. This isn't going to be them following some crazy assumption that turns out to be false. If it doesn't make sense, please let me know in the:**

**Review!!**


	17. Conversations

**Disclaimer: If you think it's clever, it probably isn't mine. And hopefully none of you watch Coupling, because that would totally ruin my credibility...**

* * *

Conversations

Sharpay stood in front of her full length mirror scrunching her nose at her perfect figure. She was wearing a short, light blue sundress and, convinced that it didn't fit right, was anxiously playing with the fabric, pulling the dress tighter and yanking at its seams. Ryan lay on her bed, back propped up by her over-stuffed pillows, hand resting behind his head as his other hand played with his phone.

"In this dress, do I have a hint of vastness?" Sharpay asked, breaking the comfortable silence. Pulled out of his thoughts, Ryan looked up with a hint of irritation dancing on his features. "I mean, honestly, below the waste. Does it say 'Look what's washed up on the beach, boys; the settlement is saved!' ?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Ryan laughed. "You look great."

"But, I don't want to look great. I want to look thin!" She whined, turning to scrutinize her bottom in the mirror. Fortunately, before Ryan could say anything more, his phone started to ring, saving him from yet another conversation about Sharpay's imaginary flaws.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ryan, it's Gabby," the girl squeaked. "D–did you, by any chance, get the voicemail that I left the other day?"

With an eye roll, Ryan easily turned his acting voice on to answer her, "Gabby, hi! Yeah, I was just about to call you. What's up?"

"Not much, I was just wondering if you'd, maybe, like to get a coffee?"

"You know," Ryan replied, pleasantly surprised by the suggestion. "That is exactly what I'd like to do."

"Great," Gabriella sighed with relief.

"Mm-K, bye then."

"Wait, Ryan! Whe-" Ryan snapped his phone shut thoughtfully only to be immediately accosted by Sharpay's voice.

"How can my ass be doing this to me?! I swear it's back there snacking when I'm not looking! Do you think there's such a thing as air borne calories?"

"Air borne calories?" Ryan repeated incredulously. "Now you're just being dumb."

Ignoring his comment, Sharpay began sizing her hips with her hands as she said, "So, Gabby, huh? What's up with that?"

"Yeah," Ryan laughed, "She thinks I'm gay and I'm pretty sure she's on the fast track to saving me."

"Oh Ryan, you wouldn't!" Sharpay gasped, looking at her brother's reflection disapprovingly.

"Wouldn't what?"

"Wouldn't play her to lay her?" She said, raising her eyebrow suggestively. "Trick her to prick her? Impersonate to copulate? Try your luck to get a–"

"You're implying that I'd allow her to think that I'm gay just so that she'll sleep with me, aren't you?" Ryan asked in mock disbelief.

Just then the sound of the Evans' doorbell could be heard resonating throughout the immense mansion. "Shit, that'll be Troy," Sharpay whispered to herself before turning to face Ryan accusingly, ignoring the doorbell. "Anyway, yes that's exactly what I'm implying."

"Well, you just might be right, then," Ryan said with a conspiratorial grin as he got off of Sharpays bed and approached her at the mirror. Attempting to flatten the fabric that Sharpay had wrinkled, he asked, "So, you've given Troy another chance? How many does that make? Forty-seven?"

"Shut up!" Sharpay exclaimed, playfully slapping him on the shoulder. "This is his last chance."

"What was the excuse this time?"

"Oh, I don't know. Some crap about Jack, you know that really dumb federal agent I told you about, kidnapping him. Then he went off on some rant about Zeke. I think they might have gotten in a fight."

"Troy and Zeke?"

"Maybe they just jump right onto your hips."

"Oh, come on," Ryan sighed exasperatedly. "There's a time for staring into the mirror and hating yourself. And that time is tomorrow morning, now lets go!" Grabbing her hand, Ryan dragged Sharpay out of her room, through the house and into the entrance hall. He yanked the front door open to reveal a well-dressed, nervous looking Troy staring at his shuffling feet on the front porch.

"Sharpay," Troy gasped, looking up at the sound of the front door finally opening.

"Troy," she sighed in response.

Looking back and forth between the two, Ryan waited for any intelligent conversation to ensue but was only faced with enraptured silence. With a snort of laughter, Ryan said in a voice purposefully too loud, "I'll just leave you two love-idiots here. I have a coffee to get."

Neither Troy nor Sharpay responded. They just continued to stare at each other with euphoric grins on their faces. Ryan shook his head in incredulity and jogged over to his car. One more second with those two and he'd have lost his lunch.

* * *

Grabbing his coffee from beneath the ornamental hanging light at the bar, Ryan glanced around the small coffee shop for a seat. It was surprisingly full for this late in the evening. The only seats available were in the middle of the café, dangerously close to a group of black-clad men who were violently fighting in hushed tones. Seeing as this was his only option, Ryan shuffled through the mess of occupied tables and chairs to reach the last free surface. He sat for a couple minutes, contentedly sipping his latté and listening to the hum of conversation taking place all around him when realization finally dawned.

Hastily pulling out his phone, Ryan punched in Gabriella's phone number and waited for her to answer.

"Hello?"

"Gabby, hi! Sorry, you meant a coffee _together_, didn't you?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

* * *

After giving the arguing men a strange look, Gabriella plopped into the seat next to Ryan with an excited grin on her face. "I'm glad you called when you did," she said. "My pussy got caught in the bath tub. She's soaking wet!"

Ryan snorted into his coffee.

Suddenly realizing what she'd just implied, Gabriella's face flushed bright red as she stammered, "I mean – I didn't mean – I mean – Oh God!" She dropped her head onto the table, completely mortified. "What is the matter with me? I'm pretty sure I used to have the ability to think!"

Ryan laughed, amused. "Thinking's overrated. You know, Gabby, many plants don't think. Have you ever considered that?"

"Why can't I talk normally to people?" she continued moaning, her voice muffled from her face still being pressed firmly into the table.

"You used to talk to Troy all the time," Ryan kindly reminded her.

Gabriella lifted her head to reply, "That was easy, though. I wasn't trying to sleep with him." It only took her a second before, "Oh my gosh!" and her head was back on the table.

"What, you can't talk to someone if you want to have sex with them?" He asked, having trouble comprehending her situation. "I could still talk to you, even if I wanted to have sex with you."

"Wait, many plants?" Gabriella asked, sitting up straight, again. Her mind was just now catching up to what Ryan had previously stated.

"What?"

"Many plants don't think?"

"That is what I said, yes."

"Ryan, _no_ plants think," she said with a victorious smile.

"Yet they have their own wisdom," he replied without skipping a beat. His voice was very serious and his eyes were wide, revealing his sincerity on the topic.

"What wisdom?"

"The wisdom of plants. It's very deep; very spiritual. It's so typically," Ryan paused and looked off into the distance, trying to think of an appropriate word. "So typically planty," was what he finally came up with.

"You're making this up!"

"No I'm not! It's a philosophy. I follow a lot of philosophies. It's one of the most interesting things about me, actually."

"So you follow the philosophy of plants?" Gabriella asked, the disbelief plainly evident in her voice.

"I am a committed vegetarian, yes." Ryan replied, still as serious as when he'd begun.

"Ok, let me get this straight. You believe in the wisdom and philosophy of plants."

"Yes."

"So you eat them."

Ryan held her gaze, processing what she'd just said. "Alright, let me get _this_ straight," he challenged. "You're a heterosexual woman."

"Mm-hm."

"But you can't talk to men."

Gabriella's mouth fell open but she quickly recovered. Smiling, she said rhetorically, "Looks like we both got one in, didn't we?"

* * *

Ryan slowly pulled into Gabriella's driveway. She had walked to the coffee shop since it was just around the corner, but the two had ended up talking for hours and it was now dark outside. Ryan, being the gentlemen that he was raised to be, refused to let Gabriella walk home. Putting the car in park, he didn't bother to turn off the ignition as he expected Gabriella to just get out of the car right then.

It was for this reason that he didn't notice her leaning towards him, lips awkwardly puckered, instead of gathering her belongings and leaving. He looked over to see what the hold-up was and caught her just as she was attempting to close the last few inches. Reacting out of pure instinct, Ryan put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back. With this contact, Gabriella opened her eyes, fixing Ryan with a perplexed expression.

"Gabby," Ryan said softly. "I think there has been a misunderstanding. This isn't a date."

Gabriella giggled, "There _has_ been a misunderstanding!" she exclaimed. "This _is_ a date!" Licking her lips, she took Ryan's momentary befuddlement as her opportunity. Closing her eyes, she leaned in once more. Ryan pushed her back more firmly this time and said fervently, "Good night, Gabby."

Disappointed, Gabriella glared at Ryan before abruptly grabbing her purse, getting out of the car and slamming the door as hard as her small arms would allow her.

* * *

Ryan stepped through his front door, expecting the house to be empty. His parents were out of town and Sharpay was on her much anticipated date, surely. So why was the kitchen light on? Stepping through the doorway, Ryan was surprised to find Sharpay leaning on the kitchen counter, eating chocolate ice-cream straight from the carton.

"Oh no, what did he do?"

"What didn't he do, more like." Sharpay replied flatly while holding out a spoon to Ryan.

Ryan immediately grabbed the spoon from Sharpay's hand and settled himself on the opposite side of the counter. Scooping a large mouthful of ice-cream, Ryan commanded, "Tell."

_

* * *

_

Troy and Sharpay remained on the front porch just smiling at each other. It wasn't until Sharpay heard Ryan's car accelerate out of the driveway that she realized they weren't saying anything. Clearing her throat, she motioned for Troy to come in. Closing the door behind her, she smiled shyly up at him and quietly asked "Do you want the grand tour?"

"_Uh, sure, yeah."_

_Sharpay led Troy through all the interesting rooms, the entertainment room, the kitchen. She passed by her parents' quarters without going in, both because she was forbidden to enter and because there was nothing interesting to show. Instead, she headed up the stairs, opening a white door and entering into a brightly lit pink room furnished with whitewash fittings. "And this is my room," she concluded, crossing her arms around her body, giving away her modicum of nerves fluttering in her stomach._

_Troy glanced around the room, taking in his surroundings. There wasn't much in the room that surprised him. The pink was to be expected, it was bright, matching her personality. As he finished his short circuit around the room, his gaze fell onto her bed. The sheets were wrinkled, as though somebody had been laying there and hadn't tidied up afterwards. Suddenly, it was as though his mind fixated on those wrinkled sheets. He couldn't look away and his brain couldn't stop picturing things. Things he shouldn't yet be picturing. At least not with Sharpay standing right there._

"_We're not having sex," she abruptly blurted out, effectively breaking through his trance._

_Finally looking up from the bed, Troy chuckled uncomfortably and replied meekly, "I wasn't expecting us to."_

_Sharpay's eyes narrowed and her arms unwrapped from around her waste. Her fists landed on her hips, all previous diffidence forgotten as she barked out, "What's that supposed to mean?"_

_Troy was shocked by her reaction. "I didn't mean – It's just – you don't even know if you're a virgin or not. Don't you think you should wait till your memory catches up with you?"_

_Sharpay scoffed, "How do you know whether I know or not?"_

"_Huh?"_

"_I haven't told you _every_ memory that's come back, you know. And while we're on the topic of virgins, I think the one we should be concerned about here is you."_

"_I'm not a virgin! My first time was at the ski resort last winter." He proudly defended himself._

"_Gabby?!"_

"_NO! Of course not. It was with this woman wh–_

"_Woman?" Sharpay interrupted with a disdained snort of laughter._

"_Yes, woman." Troy repeated, furrowing his eyebrows in resentment and crossing his arms over his chest._

"_Oh my god, she was really old, wasn't she?"_

"_She was not really old. Just...experienced."_

"_Oh my god, you did an old woman!" Sharpay continued laughing, which worked to anger Troy that much more._

"_At least she knew what she was doing!" he bolstered._

"_Because you didn't!"_

"_And, at least _I_ can still remember!" Troy yelled, giving Sharpay a critical glare._

"_Hey! I already told you–"_

"_I think you're bluffing." He stated simply._

"_Yeah?" Sharpay fumed._

"_Yeah."_

"_Alright!" She snapped in a businesslike tone. "Get on that bed."_

"_What?" Troy asked, dropping his hands to the side, along with his facade._

"_You heard me," She snapped as she grabbed her dress and pulled it off in one swift motion. Approaching the bed, Sharpay reached down to undo Troy's pant's zipper as he stared, transfixed, at her breasts._

* * *

"Well?" Ryan prompted as Sharpay had decided to stop at this point to get lost in thought.

"Well, nothing." She replied simply.

"I don't understand."

"I got his pants off, we both look down and..."

"And?"

"Nothing's looking back."

Ryans mouth dropped open. "No!"

"Yes!"

"Wow."

"I know! That wasn't supposed to happen! It's like a chain of command thing. I'm naked, he salutes."

"So what did you do?"

"Well, first I took a shower. To clear my head and give him some space. Then we talked..."

_

* * *

_

Sharpay came out of her bathroom wearing a bathrobe and squeezing the water out of her hair with a towel. Troy was sitting, dazed, on Sharpay's bed.

"_You ok?" She asked softly, sitting next to him on the bed._

"_Ya – yeah, sure," he replied uncomfortably._

"_Do you want to talk about it?"_

"_N-no, no, no, no, no."_

"_It might help to talk," she insisted._

"_No." he repeated in a flat tone._

"_You know, all men have failures from time to time."_

"_Oh, please stop, you're just making it worse!"_

"_I hope you aren't afraid to talk about your emotions with me. You've got to focus on yourself, on what's inside you right now. This is about you, Troy."_

"_Ok, ok. We'll talk." He reluctantly conceded._

"_Right, then. Is it me? Did I do something wrong?" Sharpay asked anxiously._

"_Oh please," he moaned. "You only have to lie down naked. How wrong could you go?"_

"_Alright, let's just focus on what's important here. If you have deep personal anxieties, you have to confront them. It's my hips, isn't it?"_

"_No, no, no. It's not your hips. It's got nothing to do with you. I'm just...stressed."_

* * *

"It's not such a big deal, you know. You don't have to take it personally." Ryan said, trying lamely to consol his sister.

"How can I not take it personally? He's supposed to be madly in love with me! He said so himself."

"Sharpay, it's just a one-off. It happens to everybody."

"Has it happened to you?" She asked, suddenly more interested in what Ryan had to say.

"Well," he stammered. "No, actually. But I'm sure it will!"

"What? Not at all? Not even once? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I mean, there was this really ugly girl, once–"

"Oh, I see. What you mean is, because you failed with this girl you now say she was ugly. That's denial, Ryan. Tiny bit of a problem there, I think."

Ryan chuckled to himself, shaking his head patiently, "One, she really was nasty. And two, who said I failed?"

Sharpay sighed, dropping her head in her hand in a defeated manner. "Do you think I just passed on to a whole new level and have actually become repulsive?"

Ryan laughed. "You're just panicking. You're going to be fine. Did you ever think that maybe he actually _is_ stressed? And that that's it. Maybe it has something to do with his fight with Zeke," Ryan suggested.

Sharpay was about to dismiss the suggestion when, after having thought it over, her face brightened enthusiastically, "Maybe it _was_ the fight! Oh, that would be such a relief!"

* * *

Back in the abandoned cabin located in the Country Clubs five acre park, three black clad men and Zeke were huddled around a small speaker that was connected by an intricate set of wiring to a computer. They were listening as the sound of voices broke through the white noise.

'_Maybe it has something to do with his fight with Zeke,'_

'_Maybe it was the fight! Oh, that would be such a relief!'_

Turning the sound off, an overly hairy, gangly looking man turned questioningly to Zeke. "Did you have a falling out with this Troy boy? Because I thought you were supposed to be doing everything in your power to get in good with that group." He asked menacingly.

Zeke's face was furrowed in concentration. "But we didn't have a fight. I have no idea what they are referring to. Unless they know."

Without warning, the back of the first mans' hand found itself smacking against Zeke's cheek. Crying out in pain, Zeke stumbled to the floor from the impact of the hit. "How could they have possibly found out?" the first man growled.

Setting his face in a fierce glare, Zeke was using all his will to hide the pain. In a flat voice, he replied "I don't know. But I'll find out."

**

* * *

**

I don't really have much to say about this chapter. I know, it's a first. I wrote it a little different than I normally write. A lot more dialogue, a lot less description. I also accidentally stole a lot more than just inspiration this time. Trust me, I'm not that clever. In any case, tell me what you think.

**As always, remember to Review!**


	18. The Truth

**Disclaimer: I still don't own High School Musical or the almost (though slightly modified) reference to ascii27's story 'To Speak for the Dead'**

* * *

The Truth

"And when we come back," Billy Bush flashed a cheesy grin at the camera, "we have the inside scoop on the falling out between former best friends Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Hudgens. We have what really happened that fateful day on the set of their final Disney Channel Musical, stay tuned."

Sharpay walked into the entertainment room where Ryan was broodingly watching _Access Hollywood_. As the screen changed to commercial he grabbed the remote, turning the volume down. He then looked over to Sharpay expectantly as she plopped down onto the couch next to him with an unconvincing display of innocence.

"So!" she said brightly, dropping her act as soon as she realized that Ryan wasn't buying it. "How did your date go with Gabby?" Then, raising one eyebrow suggestively she added, "Did you seal the deal? Take the girl for a whirl? Score the whore?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just stop right there!" Ryan exclaimed indignantly putting his hands up in defense. "Gabriella is not a whore!"

Surprised, Sharpay glanced around the empty room as though somebody else could have spoken. "Who said that she was?" She asked sounding convincingly affronted.

"You did, just now!"

"Oh!" Sharpay exclaimed with a light hearted chuckle and a dramatic hand positioned gracefully at her chest. "I'm sorry about that. I only meant to think it!"

Ryan gave her a disbelieving look but decided to let the comment slide. "Anyway," he continued, forcing the conversation back on track, "I didn't go through with it. When I saw her walk into the coffee shop I decided I didn't really want to sleep with her. Didn't want to ruin that innocence, you know how it is." He finished his statement dismissively and distractedly noticed that the show was back on. Before Sharpay could prolong the conversation unsolicited, Ryan quickly grabbed the TV remote and turned the volume up.

Sharpay gave a slight "Harumph," but allowed the conversation to stall as she settled back into the couch.

"In an exclusive interview with the girls' former director, Kenny Ortega tells us about the atmosphere on the set during their last few scenes together." The still grinning Billy Bush said, introducing the following interview.

"It was strange, at first," Kenny said to the off camera interviewer. He was sitting in a director's chair on the _Access Hollywood_ sound stage wearing a button-up, short-sleeved plaid shirt and a faded, blue Disney branded baseball cap. "They used to be best friends. Maybe they'd just spent too much time together, I don't really know the reasoning behind their fight. What I do know is that, by the end of filming, they were very cold with each other – exchanging snide remarks about the others appearance and career. I had tried to get them to stop because that negative energy was transferring onto film. If it appears as though the on screen best friends hate each other, that is because the off screen best friends hated each other."

"Oh my God," Sharpay gasped, hastily grabbing the remote and muting the television. "You like her!"

Ryan snapped his head around to look at his sister. "I do not. I absolutely do not!" he stammered guiltily while he emphatically shook his head and tried to grab the remote from her hand.

"Yes you do!" she exclaimed in triumph, holding the remote out of his reach and pointing her finger at Ryan accusingly. "You only turn down a lay when you like the girl! I never understood that about you, by the way."

"I do not!" he repeated. "And how did you know that?"

Sharpay paused pensively. "I don't know. I just, sort of, knew," she said with a flippant shrug. Turning the volume on the TV back up, Sharpay and Ryan both dropped the conversation and instead returned their full attention to the small screen.

* * *

Troy started at the sound of his cell phone ringing right beside his ear. Yawning, he flipped off the television that had been quietly humming in the background and sat up slowly. He vigorously rubbed his eyes, attempting to wake himself up. He'd been dozing on the couch after a grueling pre-championship basketball practice. His phone was still ringing.

Finally picking up the phone, Troy quickly glanced at the caller ID ('unavailable') before flicking it open and reluctantly answering.

"We've got some work left to do," a gruff voice whispered in his ear.

"Huh?" Troy thought he recognized the voice but he was desperately praying that he was wrong.

"I like you're prudence but you can stop playing dumb. This is a secure line, the terrorists aren't listening. Now, we're going to hold a tactical meeting in Montez's family room in oh-two-hundred. Your presence is required."

Troy sighed, glancing at his watch. "Fine," he agreed. "But why at Gabby's?"

Troy waited patiently for an answer but was only greeted with dead air. Jack had hung up before Troy had even asked the question.

"Hey Troy, who was that?" Coach Bolton asked as he wandered into the room, languorously munching on some microwaveable, theatre-style buttered popcorn.

"Oh, um, nobody! That was nobody. Just Chad playing a prank, I think, or something like that." Troy quickly answered, trying to think of a way to change the subject. "Popcorn! Hey, can I have some?"

The coach suddenly glanced at the front door distractedly, muttering quietly to himself while clutching the bag of popcorn close to his chest.

"Uh, dad?" Troy asked, the concern evident in his voice.

All of a sudden his dad shoved the bag of popcorn into Troy's hands mumbling something about needing to find his baseball cap before he turned on his heel and scampered out of the room.

"But you're wearing your baseball cap!" Troy exclaimed to his dad's rapidly retreating back.

Just then the front door loudly burst open, allowing for a panting Sharpay to confidently march into the house and slam the door shut behind her. Troy watched as she distractedly stomped toward him, the 'cla-clump...cla-clump' of her heals soundly resonating through the quiet house.

"Troy!" Sharpay shrieked anxiously, clearly having difficulty controlling her volume level. "Troy, I remembered something big!"

Troy didn't need to say anything. He immediately handed her the bag of popcorn and guided her to the couch with a concerned expression playing on his face. "Ok, Shar," he said soothingly with a reassuring smile. "Tell me about it."

Figuring she'd just remembered another moment that epitomizes the qualities of old Sharpay, Troy readied himself for a conversation centered on reminding her of the new Sharpay's positive qualities. That assumption explains why he was so surprised by her statement when she looked him square in the face and seriously replied, "I remember the accident."

* * *

_A damp Sharpay stepped into the bright sunlight magnified by the sea of windshields just outside the back doors of East High; her phone was already held in her perfectly manicured hand. She wasn't rushing to her car like every other peon in this craphole they call an education facility for two reasons: 1) she had to wait for Ryan to finish taking his Spanish exam that he'd skipped out on the first time and 2) she had parked illegally in the teacher's parking lot in order to avoid the mad crush of students attempting to leave the student parking lot._

_Taking a small, shuffling step (which was all that her designer heals would allow) toward her convertible, Sharpay typed her voicemail code into her phone's keypad. Putting the phone to her ear, she distractedly searched through her purse for her keys as she listened to her messages._

"_Yoohoo, Sharpay," the first message began. It was left by a taunting female voice that Sharpay knew to be Gabriella. The girl had taken to leaving Sharpay strange messages, usually revolving around sin and hell and burning, fiery deaths. "You know, some people consider it rude to ignore phone messages, especially after other people have left twenty or thirty of them. Admittedly, not as rude as dumping holy water on you in the girls locker room but your impression of being possessed by the devil–"_

"_I was humming my audition piece! And STOP calling me!" Sharpay's own voice could be heard in the message as she had interrupted Gabriella during the recording._

"_Well, even Taylor agrees with me that–"_

"_Wait a minute, don't you drag me into this now. Come on Gabs, give me the phone. Now, why don't we just hang–"_

'End of first message'_ the electronic voice croaked. Sharpay rolled her eyes in irritation at Gabriella's ridiculousness and deleted the message._

'Next message'

"_Well hello there Ashley," Sharpay cringed. She didn't know who this was but he had been leaving her creepy messages all week. She had a suspicion it was one of her stalker-like Youtube fans. "I know you delete my messages, Ashley, and I don't appreciate it. I know this because I am watching you. Your hiding place has been compromised. By the time you delete this message, the terrorists will have you and you will soon be dead. Bwahahahha!" It wasn't a laugh, that was actually the noise he ended the message with._

_Sharpay hated feeling this unnerved, she considered herself to be nearly as ice-like as her reputation implied. But after listening to this guy's messages, she didn't feel quite as untouchable as was usual. There was something in his messages that seemed to speak truth and it scared her. Pushing that thought aside, Sharpay pressed delete and opened her bag to store her phone back in it._

"_NO! Luke! Don't do it!" Sharpay heard a panicked sounding voice screaming from behind her. Actually, the voice sounded familiar, like she heard it every day._

_Whipping around, she saw an old, hairy looking man who clearly didn't know what style shirt works best for his body type running straight at her with barred teeth and a wildly brandished gun._

_Sharpay didn't even stop to think, she reached into her still open book bag and grabbed hold of the mace that she always kept handy and started spraying. She heard the man scream but couldn't see him because she was looking away and keeping her eyes held firmly shut._

"_Sharpay!" she heard that voice again. Why does it sound so familiar? "Sharpay, run!"_

"_Zeke?" she asked, recognition hitting her abruptly. She turned to face the direction in which the voice was coming from and accidentally opened her eyes. Realizing her mistake, Sharpay squeezed her eyes shut again but too late. Turning, she sprinted to her convertible and shoved the keys in the engine. Sniveling from the tear gas, she threw the car into drive. Forgetting that Ryan was still in the school she frantically raced out of the parking lot and down the street directly in front of the school._

_It was at this point that her head cleared enough for her to realize that, thanks to her reckless spraying techniques, she could barely see and yet she was attempting to drive. Though it was clear that driving in her present condition was dangerous, the fear of her attacker stopped her from pulling over. Instead, she decided that she could blearily and painfully see enough to make it down this road and, as soon as she gets far enough away, she'll–_

* * *

"And that's where it goes black," Sharpay finished quietly, tears threatening though her dignity ensured that they didn't fall.

Troy sat still, ingesting the information he'd just received. Fortunately, he'd already spent enough time with Jack Bauer to believe the truth in Sharpay's memory. Unfortunately, he was unsure as to how Sharpay expected him to react. He scratched his head awkwardly and exhaled loudly, making sure to avoid eye contact.

"Oh my God," Sharpay gasped in dismay. "You already knew!"

"Well," he timidly glanced up at her angry features. "Not exactly."

"Oh my God!" Sharpay jumped to her feet and threw the empty popcorn bag down in anger. "How could you know and not tell me? This is my life we're gambling with, you know!"

"Well, how do you think you would have taken it? Honestly." Troy shouted, leaping to a standing position and matching her aggressive volume level.

Sharpay shrunk back from his unexpected outburst. She considered his question for a second and finally conceded with a sigh and a subtle nod, "I probably wouldn't have believed you."

Troy was stunned. Had he just won that fight? He was prepared for a whole other round! Unable to hide his exultant grin, Troy wrapped his arms around the small girl. "You remember Jack, right?" Troy asked, softening his voice. At Sharpay's nod, he continued, "Well, he's holding a tactical meeting to decided what we are going to do with these terrorists. Considering it is as much your problem as it is his, do you want to come?"

Sharpay didn't say anything. She just nodded into his chest.

* * *

**I'm sorry, it's slightly shorter than usual. I think it's a combination of this being a good place to pause and that this week is finals week and I should probably get to studying. You know how it goes.**

**Well, let me know what you think in the Review!**


	19. Covert Operations

**Disclaimer: I will never own High School Musical.**

* * *

Covert Operations

It was an hour after their discussion over the accident and Sharpay and Troy were walking down the street as though it were a new day. They both had ten percent recycled paper cups in their hands containing a combination of milk, sugar and coffee and they were both smiling elatedly as they strolled toward the tactical meeting, shoulder to shoulder. Any passerby would have thought that they were two carefree teenagers enjoying a warm evening in each others presence, when the truth was that they were both terrified solid on the inside.

"…so he marked me down to an A- because my margins were uneven!" Sharpay finished her story indignantly. She took a calming sip of her rapidly cooling coffee and waited for Troy's indignation on her behalf. It never came.

"Speaking of, yesterday, at basketball practice–"

"Hold on, how does basketball practice have anything to do with what I was just talking about?" Sharpay asked with a stern expression on her face but a smile in her voice.

"I'm not good at transitions," Troy shrugged. "So, sue me! Anyway, as I was saying before being so rudely inter-"

"Wait a minute. This is Gabriella's house!" Sharpay exclaimed discontentedly, the smile gone from her voice. They had just stepped upon the property on which the tactical meeting was to be housed, but it had taken Sharpay a few moments to recognize the area. "Why are we at Gabriella's house, of all places?"

Troy grinned sheepishly. "Did I forget to mention that part? This is where the tactical meeting is being held. Apparently she's inserted herself into your, uh, situation here. But, give her some credit! She was the first person to bring the possibility of terrorist involvement to our attention. Remember? Back at the _Lysistrata_ audition," he reasoned with her cautiously.

"Yeah, whatever." Sharpay rolled her eyes but seemed to have accepted the explanation. Temporarily, at least.

Stepping onto the front porch, Troy put his arm possessively around Sharpay's back and rang the doorbell. Of course, instead of Gabriella opening the door, Troy and Sharpay were greeted with the somber, scrutinizing glare of Jack Bauer. "You're late. What are you doing here? Never mind I don't care," he whispered, the last two sentences directed to Sharpay, before he retreated away from the door and back into the house, leaving Troy and Sharpay to follow.

"Now that everybody is here," Jack said with a pointed look in Sharpay and Troy's direction. "We can finally get started."

The two uneasily crept into the room, discreetly gawking at its contents as they moved. The furniture was dressed in flowery fabric, every piece lined with skirts to hide any dust bunnies lurking beneath. The wallpaper matched the furniture flawlessly, with the busy floral design overpowering the Zen of the room. Sharpay was sure if she spent too much time in this room she would develop a sever allergy head-ache.

Gabriella clearly didn't mind the décor. She was curled up very comfortably on the couch, directly in front of Jack, with a contented, though slightly vacant, expression on her face. Morris, on the other hand, was squatting nervously on the other end of the couch, frantically stuffing the last few bites of a turkey sandwich into his mouth, his eyes shifting in every which direction. At the sound of Jacks impatient clucking, Troy and Sharpay quickly fell into the overstuffed arm chair that was positioned next to the couch and ostensibly turned their full attention onto him, despite actually being overwhelmingly distracted by the other's proximity.

"Ok, let's review," Jack began, pulling out a bright yellow poster board with pictures of Ashley and Sharpay glued to it. "We know that the terrorists are after Ashley and that they think that Sharpay here is Ashley. Except for the Informant, that is, who is the one tricking them into believing it. We also know that the informant is this Zeke fellow." He pulled out another poster with a few candid shots of Zeke at school pasted to it.

The group gave a collective nod of ascent to Jacks summary of their current situation.

"It seems to me, we have a few more discoveries to make. We need to find out who **The Boss** is and why she wants Ashley dead in the first place. And we need to find these terrorists."

The group gave another collective nod of ascent to Jacks assessment of their needs.

Jack watched as they all quickly shifted their eyes in opposite directions, avoiding each others gaze and pretending to be lost in thought. Sharpay was looking out the window, imagining that she was not currently sitting in Gabriella Montez's living room. Troy was staring at Sharpay's knee, amazed that it was so close to his own. Gabriella hummed softly to herself as she distractedly picked at a loose thread in the hem of her shirt and Morris was fantasizing about another Turkey sandwich with just a hint of Italian dressing and a lot of black olives. Jack sighed in aggravation, "I need suggestions here." he growled, annoyed.

Sharpay raised her eyes to the ceiling. Troy shifted his gaze up Sharpay's thigh. Gabriella continued humming and picking and Morris pulled himself to attention.

"Right, Jack. Ideas! Of course. Well, I suppose we could send one of the kids here to talk with Zeke. I bet we'd be able to get some answers out of him." Morris suggested hopefully.

Jack looked at him thoughtfully. "Yeah, I had thought of that myself. The only problem is, I'm not sure just how easily one of these three will be able to crack him. This is a practiced terrorist we're talking about. I was hoping we'd save that as a last resort."

The room fell silent again, all that could be heard was the subtle ticking of the grandfather clock sitting in the entryway. After what seemed to be an eternity, the bell sounding the hour went off and with it brought some of Gabriella's sense back. With a loud gasp she jumped from her seat and threw her arm in the air as she jumped up and down excitedly. Everybody turned to look at her, surprised by her sudden outburst.

The clock continued to ring off the hour.

Gabriella continued to jump excitedly, one hand in the air, her excitement barely contained.

Everybody else continued to stare at her expectantly.

The clock finished ringing and the room delved back into silence, this time with anticipation thick in the air.

Gabriella continued to jump.

"What's wrong with her?" Jack finally asked, turning to Troy and Sharpay. The couple looked at each other quizzically, both slightly unsure as to how to answer. Suddenly, it came to Troy.

"Yes, Gabriella?" he asked in the most sincere, teacher-like voice he could muster.

Gabriella calmly brought her hand down and stopped jumping. Then, adopting an all-knowing tone, she stated simply, "I know where the terrorist's are. When I was lost in the jungle I'd stumbled across their cabin."

"How come you never told me that?" Troy asked, irritated that she would keep such valuable information to herself.

"I tried!" she shrieked resentfully. "You just weren't listening!"

"Wait, you know where the terrorists are staying?" Jack asked in jubilant disbelief. Gabriella nodded. "That is wonderful! You can take me there and we can look for clues! In fact, we'll plant a bug and maybe we'll find out who **The Boss** is!" Jack was getting more and more excited as every word he spoke came out faster and faster.

Sharpay's eyes narrowed as she watched the conversation developing between Gabriella and Jack.

"–we'll need a hanger and some bubble gum to do this next part–"

She couldn't help but to feel like her delicate fate was being fecklessly placed in the incapable hands of her newfound enemy Gabriella Montez and the equally incapable hands of this so-called federal agent Jack Bauer.

"–and then we'll melt some crayons and pour them in the–"

"Wait just a minute!" Sharpay finally bellowed, standing up and taking a step closer to Jack. "Shouldn't _I_ go with? These people are after _me_ so I'll probably know more about whatever they've got on me."

Jack looked at Sharpay as though he hadn't known she was there the whole time. He waited a beat, processing what she'd suggested. Then, grabbing her arm, he pulled her down onto the ledge of the fireplace with him so that they were both sitting not quite separated from the other three who were watching, fascinated.

"Sharpay," Jack said in his increasingly patronizing whisper. "I would love it if you could come along, but don't you think it would be a better idea to stay behind? Just in case Gabriella, you know–"

"Dies," Sharpay supplied easily, nodding her head in understanding.

Gabriella gasped. Jack stared at Sharpay in surprise, shaking his head. "Can't cope," He corrected her.

"Right," Sharpay nodded again with a soft smile, showing her complete understanding. "Can't Cope," she agreed. "And dies."

"No! No 'and dies' at all." Jack said exasperatedly.

"Sorry," Sharpay giggled. "Can't cope." She repeated with finality while at the same time holding up two fingers and air-quoting the words.

Jack shook his head and dropped it slowing into his hands. "Lose the quotations," he sighed.

Sharpay bit her lip and nodded. "Fine," she spat out. "Can't cope."

* * *

An hour later, Troy and Sharpay were sitting gloomily in the half empty café, both on their third cup of coffee – decaf, this time.

"I _hate_ that they're out their deciding my fate," Sharpay grumbled as she pounded her fist on the table hard enough to nock over two of the empty ten percent recycled paper cups.

"Me too," Troy agreed, just as upset as she was. "I feel like we should be doing something to help."

"Mmm," Sharpay grunted in agreement. "But what?"

Troy sighed, "I don't know. Like searching Zekes house or questioning him or something."

Sharpay turned to Troy with a conspiratorial grin. "I think that's exactly what we should do."

"What?" Troy asked in slight disbelief.

"Let's just drop by my house first so I can pick up a few provisions," she amended.

"You're serious?"

"As Harry's Godfather, now let's get a move on! The clock is ticking, boy!" With that, the two teens grabbed their empty coffee cups and raced out the door, leaving the few patrons left inside startled by their abrupt and loud departure.

* * *

Meanwhile…

"Now, tell me," Jack said to Gabriella after he'd called for reinforcements from CTU. "Which jungle was this in?"

"The Country Clubs five acre park." Gabriella said brightly.

"Park?" Jack repeated, slightly confused.

"Yep," Gabriella replied, empty grin still in place.

Jack picked up his cell-phone and dialed out. "Cancel that fleet." He whispered. "Send me two."

* * *

Two hours later, Jack and Gabriella stumbled into the small clearing that contained a dark, abandoned looking log cabin. Approaching slowly, Jack repeatedly touched his ear and whispered too quietly for even Gabriella to hear. Following close behind, Gabriella couldn't seem to slow her racing heart and pumping blood due to her exhilarated anticipation. With every small noise that her senses intensified, her nerves started and she gave a little jump. And she was loving every minute of it.

Jack tiptoed to the front door and pressed his ear against it. He listened intently for a couple seconds before standing up straight and turning to Gabriella. "We're clear," He said without a hint of his normal whisper. Gabriella flinched at his increased volume level, but let out a sigh of relief at his words.

Ignoring her reaction, Jack reached down and grasped the door handle, carefully pushing it open and allowing for them to enter. Once inside, Gabriella looked around at the familiar surroundings. The walls were covered just as they had been on her first visit; the pictures of Ashley and Sharpay plastered everywhere, giving the room an eerie resemblance to that of a tween girl's bedroom.

Conversely, Jack seemed to be ignoring the walls entirely. His attention was focused on a small, wobbly, three legged table sitting boldly in the middle of the one-room building. On top of this table was an array of ancient-looking plugs and wires all connecting to some technical contraption. Gabriella looked but she couldn't make sense of the machine. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long before Jack touched his ear and whispered with near admiration "A ProExtreme-Acoustic Leakage Probe Contact Mic!"

Rushing over to the table, Jack started to fiddle with the dials and apparently figured out impressively quickly how to turn the listening device on because the next thing that Gabriella heard was Ryan's voice coming out of the speaker above the static.

"You can't break into Zeke's house! Do you have any idea how illegal that is?"

"And necessary!" Sharpay's irritated voice responded. "Troy and I need to do something to help figure out what is going on. I can not sit in the dark while that _whore_ is out, God knows where, messing with my fate!"

Gabriella gasped, "I am _not_ a whore!"

Ryan gasped, "Gabriella is _not_ a whore!"

Gabriella smiled to herself.

"Oh, stop smiling to yourself, Ryan. It's nauseating how giddy you look every time she's brought up."

Jack looked over at Gabriella, about to say something on this discovery, but instead snorted at the expression currently plastered on her face. "Sharpay's right," he laughed. "That look is nauseating."

Before Gabriella could respond in defense, the door to the log cabin burst open and three dark men dressed all in black walked through the entryway. The leader of the group appeared to be a gangly man with sunken eyes and hairy arms. He locked eyes with Jack and opened his mouth to bark out a command to his two minions but first glanced over to Gabriella and immediately changed his tactics. Falling to his knees, he instead fixed her with a convincingly deferential look. The other two immediately followed their leader to the ground as they stared at Gabriella with fear in their eyes.

"Why, **The Boss**!" The leader said with superficial regard. "Whatever are you doing here?"

"Huh?" Jack and Gabriella both responded stupidly.

"We thought you didn't want to come around here because you didn't want this mission to be linked back to you," the minion to the left squeaked nervously, his voice jumping like a pre-pubescent boys'.

Suddenly, Gabriella felt a confidence take over her that she hadn't felt since _Twinkle Towne_. She wasn't sure what was going on or what these men were talking about, but she suddenly stood straighter and talked deeper, more authoritatively. Opening her mouth, she let whatever it was that had just possessed her body speak for her:

"I had said that, hadn't I?" She snarled at the men. "But you boys are so incompetent; I figured I had to intervene just to get this damn operation back on track! Do you know how long it's been since I assigned you this task?"

The three terrorists dropped their heads in defeat, grumbling their apologies and explanations.

"No, seriously," Gabriella said curiously, falling out of character as her posture loosened. "How long has it been?"

Jack quickly cleared his throat and stomped on Gabriella's foot, reminding her of the part she was currently playing.

"Oh, right. Uh, ENOUGH!" Gabriella yelled feigning anger. This was enough to pull the three men's heads up and halt the escalating explanations that were still escaping their mouths. "Now, this is Jack," Gabriella continued, motioning towards Jack who was standing slightly behind her. "I have hired him to complete your job with you. It is clear that you three are completely incapable of following simple orders, so I have brought yet another under-cover to aid you in your task. He'll be by tomorrow to give you my instructions."

Gabriella smiled slightly to herself at the visible flinching her words inflicted upon these grown men. _'So this is what real power feels like,'_ she thought keenly.

"Come, Jack. We must leave now," She instructed, savoring her last few moments of supremacy before she had to step out of this role. Motioning for Jack to follow her, Gabriella took one step around the table when the front door burst open yet again and one more man in all black stepped inside. His eyes fell onto Gabriella and his blank expression immediately turned to confusion. Gabriella gasped slightly to herself and tried to hide her face but it was too late.

"Gabriella?" Zeke asked maliciously with a grin. "What are you doing here?"

The three terrorists quickly looked from Zeke to Gabriella as comprehension slowly dawned. "Gabriella?!" they half exclaimed.

"Gabriella." Zeke confirmed with a slight nod.

"So, not **The Boss**?" The three terrorists asked, their confidence growing.

"Not **The Boss**." Zeke confirmed with a smirk.

That was when all hell broke loose.

**

* * *

**

Honestly, I did not realize Gabriella would be taking such a central role in my story. I don't know what that's about. Sometimes it's scary how these things happen. BTW, did anybody catch the Harry Potter reference? I thought it was quite clever - until I find out that somebody came up with it before me, of course.

**Oh yeah - Sorry to those of you who read my other story, **_**The Price of Sovreignty**_**. A new chapter is coming soon, I promise!**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed this latest installment. Please tell me what you thought, good or bad. It means a lot to me when you do!**


	20. Karma

**Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical – and one of you will probably recognize the ending.**

* * *

Karma

"How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours."

-Wayne Dyer

The subsequent events after Zeke's confirmation of Gabriella's true identity took place in three parts. Three parts that came about so quickly it would be impossible to fully describe them within the allotted seconds. However, these same events are remembered in the minds of all involved in such clarity and poignancy that they feel as though these three events took years to play out. That being the case, the following three events will be described as objectively and descriptively as possible, purely for the benefit of those of us who were fortunate enough to not participate.

That said, we'll continue.

"Gabriella." Zeke confirmed with a slight nod.

"So, not **The Boss**?" The three terrorists asked, their confidence growing.

"Not **The Boss**." Zeke confirmed with a smirk.

Event Number One:

It was as though every being in the room had lost all ability for movement. Frozen in place, the only action that could be taken was through the vocal cords. Three statements were uttered within this short period of immobility, each statement with its own dynamism, each statement uttered at exactly the same moment.

"NOW!" Jack yelled.

"GET DOWN!" Zeke ordered.

"Eeeehhhh!" Gabriella whimpered.

Event Number Two:

All commotion that had previously been suspended suddenly reactivated in seeming overdrive.

Gabriella's legs started to collapse from under her, her sheer terror causing all control to be lost. Fortunately, Jack was standing directly behind her and had been anticipating this loss of motor ability. At the same time that her body was descending to the floor, Jack grabbed around her waste and threw her body with frightening ease over his left shoulder as though she were a limp plank of wood and he a burly construction worker. Not comprehending any of the surrounding activities, Gabriella's mind was laggard in understanding the sudden appearance of Jack's ass in front of her face or why her own was thrust promiscuously into the air. As these questions slowly formed inside her head, Jack barreled his way past the terrorists, past Zeke, and through the one door leading to the outside.

At the same moment that Gabriella's knees had started to fail her, two of the unnamed terrorists dropped to the floor in much the same manner. Unfortunately for them, there was no Jack to catch them mid-fall, leaving them to crash unceremoniously onto the splintering wood floor. The smaller of the two terrorists quickly scooted himself beneath the nearest chair, hoping it would provide enough cover while the other found a corner of the room and cowered masterfully with his arms covering his head and his nose scrunched in terrified anticipation.

Zeke and the last remaining terrorist, on the other hand, were both thinking slightly more coherent thoughts than the first two terrorists had been. Watching as Jack took off through the door, these two automatically followed him out. The only difference being that, once outside, they both turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, away from Jack and into the woods.

This is where everybody was located just before the third event began. The two terrorists were trembling inside the cabin, Zeke and the other terrorist were running away from the cabin just about to disappear into the woods, and Jack, with Gabriella still slung over his shoulder, was running toward the trail that had first led them into the clearing.

Event Number Three:

This was where the gun firing began. Jack and Gabriella's butt finished disappearing into the trail as Jack's two back-up agents stood from behind the nearby foliage. Raising their automatic rifles to their shoulders and taking aim with both eyes opened, they began firing at the two attempting escape. Within seconds, the unnamed terrorist was down and Zeke had disappeared completely.

Without skipping a beat or losing another second, the back up agents set down their rifles and pulled out a small stick of dynamite. They lit the fuse and expertly threw it through the cabin window and into the cabin where the first two terrorists were still crouching, now with a hint of blubbering escaping from their throats.

The two back-up agents quickly gathered their equipment and ran after Jack.

The subsequent explosion was inevitable.

* * *

Pause right there.

Now rewind the scene.

Rewind to before the explosion.

Rewind to before the gun firing.

To before the running and cowering.

To before the collapsing and before the shouting.

Rewind to just about the moment Zeke entered into the cabin, after he'd opened the door but before he'd noticed Gabriella's presence.

Now freeze the frame and zoom out. Zoom away from the cabin, away from the forest, zoom away from the city and up into the sky. In front of you is a sea of houses and roads and parks and businesses. You are close enough to see the cars moving like little Tonka toys but far enough to see the entire expanse of the Albuquerque city limits and surrounding suburbs.

Now take this image and change your focus. Shift over to the left. You should see a grouping of houses connected by an organized set of roadwork to form a large neighborhood.

Zoom in. A specific house will come into view. It is the largest house on the street with a bright orange roof and a dark blue pool in the back yard. The newly paved driveway holds three large vehicles, two are black and one is a freshly painted bright pink with stenciled initials on the hood. Each vehicle is blocked into the driveway by a wrought iron gate that separates the driveway from the road.

Zoom in further and you will see three teenagers frozen within this frame. A petite blonde girl is in the lead. Her hair is blowing out behind her, due in part to her hurried run but mostly the strong breeze that is opposing her movement. Behind her is a dark haired boy with a worried expression on his face. He is carrying a book bag that seems to be filled to its breaking point though the strain it is undoubtedly causing on his back is imperceptible in his strong stance. The final teenager is standing in the doorway to the large house, his mouth is open as though he had been caught in the middle of a sentence. His brow is furrowed disapprovingly and his hands are firmly set against his hips. He does not seem to be following the other two towards the vehicles.

This is where we will begin the next scene.

* * *

"-expecting to find, but don't call me when you get killed!" Ryan shouted after his sister and her, is he her boyfriend now?

Sharpay just waived her hand behind her dismissively as she hurriedly approached one of the family cars sitting in the driveway. Remembering that she hadn't driven since the accident, Sharpay quickly tossed the keys to Troy barking "You drive," and ran around the car to hop into the passenger seat.

Troy got into the car wearing an apprehensive look on his face but once he put the keys into the ignition and started the car his apprehension gave way to a grin, slowly spreading across his face. He listened to the potent vibration of the oversized Cadillac Escalade and happily savored the authoritative feeling that came along with it.

"What?!" Sharpay barked at him, her nerves causing her already overactive anxiety to rise substantially.

Troy glanced over at her with a euphoric expression. "I just feel so powerful right now," he sighed dreamily.

"Well, feel powerful driving!" She snapped, annoyed at already being delayed.

Troy reluctantly sobered his excitement and put the car into reverse. They had a job to do.

* * *

After a short drive and two wrong turns, they were finally at Zekes house and ready to act the part of a lifetime. They just had to make it to the front door first. Troy took a deep breath as Sharpay fidgeted with her seatbelt.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Just act like you don't know anything," Sharpay replied. This was the fifth time she'd reminded him of that. Troy was relatively certain she was no longer saying it for his benefit.

The two finally got out of the car and cautiously walked up the sidewalk path to Zeke's front door, nerves causing their movement to be noticeably more erratic. Troy gazed at the house pondering how, in all the time he'd known Zeke, he had never actually been to this house. Shouldn't he have recognized that as being strange? He'd been to all his other teammates houses. Deciding to remonstrate on his own retrospective negligence later, Troy turned his full attention to the closed door that Sharpay had just knocked upon.

The two waited with baited breath, watching the door with heightened anticipation.

"Just act like you don't know anything."

They waited a while longer and Troy started to feel a burning in his chest. Quickly realizing that he'd been holding his breath, he allowed it to release slowly through his clenched teeth which caused a slight whistle to sound. Neither seemed to notice.

"Maybe you should ring the doorbell," Troy said to Sharpay after a few more minutes of silence.

Sharpay nodded and pressed the doorbell. They continued standing there noiseless, listening to the ringing echo throughout the house before them.

And still they waited.

And still nobody came.

"Oh, this is ridiculous!" Sharpay finally burst, turning around and walking back down the sidewalk path. "It's obvious nobody's home."

"You're right," Troy said, relief etched across his face. He turned and started to follow Sharpay back to the Escalade, but Sharpay didn't stop there. She was going around to the back of the house. "Sharpay?" Troy called apprehensively after her. "Sharpay, what are you doing?"

"We said we were going to search his house, didn't we?" She responded over her shoulder without missing a step. She reached her hand down and grasped the handle to the gate of the wooden fence that enclosed the backyard. Troy watched anxiously, hoping that the gate would be locked. No such luck, Sharpay swung the gate open with ease and proceeded into Zeke's backyard.

Troy ran to catch up with her hoping that he could dissuade her from continueing this foolish mission. "Do you really think a practiced terrorist who has, among other things, his real identity to keep as a secret would just leave his back door open?" he said as she stepped up to the sliding glass door and grasped the protruding handle.

Sharpay shrugged slightly then used all her might to yank on the door. It opened with ease. Turning, Sharpay smiled sweetly and replied "You were saying?" before she ducked into the house, leaving Troy conspicuously standing in Zeke's backyard.

"What is it with you and breaking into homes?" he muttered, shaking his head as he cautiously stepped forward to join Sharpay in the formidable house.

But before his eyesight had even adjusted to the dim, Troy was stopped dead by the onslaught of what appeared to be Mickey Mouse's. The sliding glass door had led them into Zeke's kitchen where everything was in the shape of a Mickey Mouse. The clock on the wall, the cookie jar, even the stove top burners were all shaped in that familiar three circled shape. Troy surveyed the room, letting out a long low whistle as he and Sharpay slowly tiptoed further into the house, curiously examining every surface.

In an attempt to escape the Disney kitchen parade, Troy stepped into the living area with the hopes of finding any normal décor. But all that he was faced with was more evidence of this strange obsession. The wallpaper contained a repeated scene with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald all riding bikes around a park. There was a Mickey Mouse bag sitting next to the Mickey's-hand-bean-bag chair. The lamp in the corner of the room was a totem pole of classic Disney cartoon characters, even the rug residing in the middle of the floor was shaped like Mickey's shoe. Everything in the room bore some sort of reference to Disney except one item.

Troy looked over at Sharpay incredulously. "Is this what you were expecting?"

Sharpay laughed.

"What are we even looking for?"

Sharpay shrugged and glanced once more around at the incredibly manufactured decorations.

It was with this last glance that her gaze fell on the one and only item that hadn't been touched by Tinkerbelle's fairy dust. It was a plain brown journal sitting, of course, on top of a plastic Mickey Mouse end table. But the journal itself contained not a single reference to anything Disney.

Sharpay quickly snatched it up and examined it. "Mission Book," She read off of the inside cover. She glanced over curiously at Troy who was watching her intently before returning to the book. "'End Goal: Protect Ashley Tisdale at all costs'"

"Wait a minute," Troy interrupted her dubiously. "If his goal was to protect Ashley then why has he been working with the terrorists to get her?"

"But he _was _protecting Ashley by directing the terrorists toward me. He hasn't been working with the terrorists, he's been working against them," she explained quickly.

"So he's pretending to be a bad guy when he's actually a good guy who's also a little bad?"

"Exactly," Sharpay nodded then turned her attention back to the journal and continued reading. "Ashley will remain in the tallest tower of the Cinderella Castle in Disney World until the goal is accomplished - Oh my gosh, Troy! Do you know what this means?" she asked excitedly.

"I – uh, no."

"It means!" she said excitedly as she tucked the journal under her arm and started walking back to the sliding glass door. "It means that we know where Ashley Tisdale is! We can find her and tell her what Zeke is doing. We can tell her to put a stop to all this!"

Troy snorted. "Just like that! We're just going to ask her to put a stop to it?"

"Mmhm."

"And how do you suppose we'll get to the tallest tower in the Cinderella castle in Disney World? Movie magic?"

"Don't be ridiculous. We'll take the first flight out of Albuquerque," Sharpay replied flippantly.

"The first flight. And how do you suppose we do that?"

With that Sharpay turned to face Troy with a conspiratorial grin darkening her features. "Daddy doesn't leave me an emergency credit card just for shopping sprees, you know."

* * *

"_This is the final boarding call for flight 275, non-stop to Orlando, Florida"_

"Come on!" Sharpay shouted. Even in her heals she was running faster than Troy, though it should be considered that he was still carrying the overstuffed book-bag. They were running through the furthest terminal in the Albuquerque International Sunport Airport trying to find their gate before it closed and if that announcement was any indication, they didn't have a large grace period.

They scurried up to the gate just as the attendants were about to close the door. Amidst heavy breathing and frequent wiping of their brows the teenagers thrust their tickets at the droopy eyed flight attendant and forcibly shoved their way into the tunnel while, at the same time, expertly avoiding the exasperated glares of every flight attendant along the way.

Their quick paces slowed down once they actually stepped foot onto the aircraft proper. They hesitantly walked down the narrow aisle as they repeatedly glanced above their fellow passengers heads to read the seat numbers. "I always have the worst luck with seating assignments," Sharpay whispered over her shoulder as she scanned the plane for her seat.

Troy smiled but didn't respond, he had found her seat and he already knew her luck had yet to change. Their seats were in the very last row. The row that can't recline due to the bathrooms located directly behind them. Troy and Sharpay both had aisle seats, but Sharpay's seat was next to the two largest people he had ever seen. In fact, he wasn't sure her specific seat was even visible beneath the spillover of these two people. Sharpay let out a low groan and whispered in a slight panic, "I'll pay you any amount of money to switch seats with me right now!"

Troy just laughed and squeezed past her to sit in his seat comfortably and with plenty of room. Sharpay narrowed her eyes at him and muttered something that to Troy sounded a bit like, "useless, good-for-nothing, selfish little twit," but he couldn't be sure. He leisurely stowed the overstuffed book-bag under his seat and then smiled up at her triumphantly.

"Miss," Sharpay felt an annoying tap on her shoulder. Turning, she came face to face with an irritable flight attendant wearing a transparent smile. "Miss, I am going to need you to kindly take a seat. We would like to be departing shortly but we can't do so until you are buckled in."

Sharpay returned the transparent smile. "Of course." She looked to where her seat was, fake smile still in place. "Excuse me, sir. If you don't mind, this is my seat."

The man looked at her with squinty, watery eyes. Two minutes later his chins stopped jiggling. "I bet you've never seen two people as fat as us before, have you?" he shouted up at her as he tried to tuck in some of the flab. Sharpay didn't know how to respond to such a question so she just continued to smile and chuckled lightly, hoping that the question was rhetorical.

Finally, the man scooted over enough to allow Sharpay a sliver of chair to squeeze into. She tried to make herself as small as possible and hoped beyond hopes that this man wouldn't say any more to her.

"You know?" he shouted over to her. Sharpay cringed and refused to meet his gaze. "You size fours are so annoying. EAT Something!"

Sharpay's mouth fell open in astonishment. She glared over at him about to tell him that maybe _he_ should be the one to change his eating habits but he was already looking away, apparently fully absorbed in the magazine that his wife was holding.

Troy snorted with laughter and quickly ducked down so that nobody would notice. But the woman sitting next to him did. With an amused smile she nodded a polite hello, which Troy tried to return with a more composed face.

"So I bet you think these are real," the woman said proudly, indicating her breasts. Troy's merriment instantly fell away. "Well let me tell you a story. I like to call it the story of a survivor..."

Karma. It gets you every time.

**

* * *

**

Just to clarify – Gabriella is not The Boss. She was pretending to be The Boss because the terrorists thought that she was. So, using our own deductive reasoning: who looks enough like Gabriella to confuse the terrorists? And that is who The Boss is. Sorry if it was confusing.

**Well, please review!**


	21. The Deal

**Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical**

* * *

The Deal

"Just pretend that we do this every day," Sharpay hissed as she gave Troy a small push to get him moving. "They won't question us if we look like we are supposed to be doing this." They were standing in the very crowded tunnel beneath Cinderella's castle in Disney World eyeing the large security guard blocking the door to 'backstage Disney'.

"Excuse me!"

Troy jumped at the sound of the security guards voice.

"Excuse me, Ashley?"

Troy nudged Sharpay in the ribs, bringing her full attention to this red-faced man in front of them.

"Huh?"

"How did you get out of your room? You know, I have strict orders to keep you within the tallest tower of this castle."

Troy watched as Sharpay's expression changed seamlessly from confusion to sheepish embarrassment. "Well, you caught me," she said dramatically, throwing her hands up in the air in a wild gesture of defeat. "I better go back to my room then."

The guard nodded and stepped aside to allow them access to the door as he surveyed the surrounding crowd. Troy followed the guards gaze, uneasy about who else may be out there but he hardly had time to turn his head when Sharpay grabbed hold of his elbow and yanked him, stumbling, through the door after her.

"Now we just have to find some stairs," she muttered quietly as she assessed all the possible hallways that they could walk down.

"Sharpay?" Troy asked effectively pulling her out of her meditation to look at him with wide, curious eyes. Without saying another word, he took her hands in his own and leaned down to place a gentle kiss on her lips.

At first Sharpay was surprised, her eyes widening even more, but it didn't take long for her to forget her surroundings and melt into the kiss. Closing her eyes, she pulled his arms around her waste to bring their bodies together. She quickly moved her hands up, running one through his mess of hair, the other hand on his neck as he pulled her even closer to him. With this the kiss deepened.

Sharpay had kissed many guys, of that there was no doubt, but never before had a kiss been this good. Excellent. Fabulous, even. It wasn't just that Troy was a great kisser; more like Troy already knew just how to kiss _her_, specifically. It was like they just fit perfectly together.

But before they got in too deep, Troy softly pulled away, a goofy grin plastered on his face. Sharpay sighed contentedly, smiling up at Troy when –

"HEY! You there! You're not supposed to be down here. Get out!"

Sharpay started at the harsh tone directed at them. Seeing an angry woman with a large mole on her chin and a crooked finger pointing reprovingly at them, Sharpay grabbed Troy's hand and, with a giggle from her, the two started sprinting down the nearest hallway, up a flight of stairs and through a maze of more hallways.

Not knowing whether they were still being followed or not, Troy and Sharpay continued ascending the castle hurriedly, hoping that fortune would bring them to the right door.

And it appears that fortune was on their side. Stepping onto the landing after what seemed to Sharpay to be the millionth flight of stairs, it was very obvious that this was as high up as they could go. The hallway they landed in was short and very narrow with a small window at other end as the only source of light. The limited sunlight that did stream in revealed dusty corners and chipped paint on the walls. The tiles on the floor were cracked, some missing, and the ceiling had too many water spots to count. Sharpay sneezed, the dust and damp having a quick affect on her sinuses. There was one door on the entire floor. It stood ajar.

Still clinging to Troy's now sweaty hand, Sharpay tip-toed over to the door and slowly pushed it open with one finger. Peaking in, she saw a room in stark contrast to this hallway. It was bright, full of light, and predominantly pink. She pushed the door open a little more to reveal a small girl laying on a couch in the middle of the room. Sharpay gasped as her eyes adjusted more clearly to the sudden brightness and she finally got a good look at the girl that was now looking back at her.

"Hello Sharpay," Ashley said.

* * *

"TELL ME WHERE **THE BOSS** IS!" Jack demanded of the terrorist in his whispery scream. Gabriella watched in fascination, contemplating the complexities of Jacks voice. How was it possible for him to be so demandingly loud while still whispering?

"I-I-I-I, um, I don't kn-know," the terrorist replied, terrified. He was duct taped to a rickety fold out chair, the sweat and tears mixing with the dirt on his face to give him a strangely European look.

"I'm here, what have we found out?" Ryan gasped, bursting through the door of Jack and Morris's temporary headquarters in an anxious rush.

"Nothing," Jack replied over his shoulder as Gabriella immediately fastened her hip to Ryans'.

Jack turned back to the terrorist with a plastic knife in hand. Placing it against the terrorist's neck, he leaned down close to his ear. Then he whispered (in an actual whisper this time) something into the terrorists ear which caused his face to scrunch up in what Gabriella assumed was anticipated pain. But all he did was insist that he knew nothing about **The Boss **or Zeke.

Ryan, with his arm around Gabriella's shoulders, and Gabriella, with her hand in Ryan's back pocket, continued to stand near the door watching the horrific scene with desensitized comfort. Blame it on modern video games. Jack, on the other hand, just continued to berate and abuse the terrorist until he finally decided that this guy honestly didn't know anything. Leaving the terrorist in a crumpled heap of tears and prayers, Jack approached the duo with a frustrated look on his face.

"So what have we got?" Ryan asked, sounding slightly too optimistic.

With a scowl, Jack replied with the same as before. "Nothing."

"If only we knew where Troy and Sharpay have gone off too," Gabriella whined after a short silence. "I bet Zeke's followed them."

"Why do you say that?" Jack asked.

"Well, if he's not here. I just figured, where else would he be?"

"So we just have to figure out where they ran off too," Jack said, furrowing his eyebrows in thought.

"Is that all?" Ryan asked. "I could have told you that ages ago!"

* * *

"I'm sorry? How do you know who I am?" Sharpay replied cautiously, still not stepping into the brightly lit room before her.

Ashley stood up from the couch and smiled softly at Sharpay. "Yes. Zeke mentioned something about amnesia. But, please, come in. You too Troy."

Slightly confused, the two took one step into the room and closed the door behind them. They were still holding hands. Seeing this, Ashley smiled and said in reference to it, "I see there have been a few personal changes since the last time we spoke." Then, turning to Troy she said, "I always thought you two would look better together, anyway. But I'm not one to judge, no sir."

Troy fixed Sharpay with a confused stare. She just returned with a shrug.

"Come. Have a seat," Ashley said indicating a table near the large bay window set with tea and small cakes. "I suppose I better fill you in on some of your own history."

_

* * *

_

Ding Dong.

"_Margot!" Sharpay shrieked from her place on the couch in the entertainment room. "Get the Door!"_

_Sharpay returned her gaze to the magazine that was sitting lightly in her lap but she kept an ear listening to who was at the door._

"_-just going to talk to her for a short second," a vaguely familiar voice said, getting louder as she approached Sharpay. Sharpay didn't look up until the person who had entered the room sat down on the couch next to her, unabashedly uninvited. Sharpay looked up with an arrogant smile and came face to face with a very familiar face. In fact, it was the face that she so meticulously made up every day. It was this very lack of make-up that confirmed for Sharpay that she was looking at a different person and not just facing a mirror._

"_Sharpay."_

"_You're Ashley Tisdale!" Sharpay said in disbelief. "What are you doing here? In my house? And how do you know my name?"_

"_I have people."_

_Sharpay nodded as though she understood this answer. "Oh."_

"_I apologize, Sharpay, I don't have much time. But I have a proposition for you. Would you be willing to give me a couple minutes of your time?"_

"_Absolutely," Sharpay replied dreamily. Ashley Tisdale was, unconditionally, her favorite star. And she was sitting right there! Closing the magazine that just happened to have Ashley's face on the cover, Sharpay tossed it onto the coffee table in embarrassment and sat up eagerly attentive._

"_Fantastic. Now, I'm sure you've noticed the similarities in our appearance." Sharpay nodded enthusiastically. "Well, I was hoping I could convince you to pretend to be me, only under cover. There are some people looking for me that I can't have find me. Disney has hired somebody else to make those people think that _You_ are _me_. Only under cover."_

_Sharpay stared at her idol, her mind reeling from everything that Ashley had so quickly said. "Wait," she said, closing her eyes to help her concentrate. "Are you saying you want me to become the target of these so-called bad people?" She laughed condescendingly and said, "I'm sorry, have you not seen my house? Can you not tell that my family has quite a bit of money? What could you possibly have to give me to persuade me to put myself in harms way for you? A stranger?"_

_Ashley stared at Sharpay for a beat before she looked up and nodded at a picture that was hanging on the wall. "Who's the hunk?"_

_Sharpay looked over at what Ashley was referring to and saw her picture of Troy. It was a candid shot of him right after _Twinkle Towne_. Actually, he hadn't known that Sharpay was taking the picture, which is why Gabriella's arm was in the picture. That little whore just wouldn't leave his side. Sharpay sighed at the memory. "That's Troy."_

"_And the arm around his shoulder's looks slightly too dark to be yours, am I right?" Ashley asked._

"_Please tell me you're offering to cut off Gabriella's arm if I agree to do this," Sharpay said. Ashley laughed but Sharpay continued to stare at her in complete seriousness._

"_No, but I am willing to offer you the role of a lifetime. It will be in a movie along side me. I've seen a tape of you perform and I must say, I would love to work with you."_

"_You've seen a tape of me? But how did you get that without me knowing?"_

_Ashley stood up, gathering the few possessions she had carried with her into the entertainment room. "Like I said," she shrugged. "I have people. Now, I must get going. I promise that you will not be in danger if you agree to this. We've hired a very skilled agent. He will direct the bad people in your direction but he will keep them from touching you. Promise me you'll think about it. I would love to work with you."_

_Sharpay watched in stunned silence as Ashely stepped out of the room and let herself out of the house._

* * *

"I take it, I agreed?" Sharpay asked in between bites of her cucumber tea sandwich.

"Actually, no," Ashley replied sheepishly. "Apparently Disney didn't care what your answer was going to be. They were going to use you no matter what. I assure you, I didn't have any part of this. I never wanted to put your life at risk, especially when you hadn't agreed to it. But I don't know if you've noticed, Disney is quite a force to be reckoned with. Hence my pathetic existence in here until this issue is resolved."

"So what do we need to do to stop them?" Troy asked. That was the first time he'd spoken since entering the room.

Ashley smiled sadly. "I don't know. Vanessa's the one who hired the terrorists. Zeke's been talking with her, pretending to work with her in an attempt to figure out how to stop her. But she seems pretty steadfast in her hatred toward me."

"Yeah, what's that all about?"

"Oh, that's a long story that –"

"ASHLEY! What in God's name do you think you're doing?" Zeke shouted as he calmly stepped through the still open door.

"Zeke!" Ashley shrieked excitedly.

"Zeke?" Zeke's gaze quickly shifted to the other two in the room.

"Sharpay? Troy?"

"SHARPAY!"

"Ryan?"

"Zeke?"

"Gabriella!"

"Troy!"

"Jack!"

"Oh my God, it's Ashley Tisdale."

"What are you all doing here?" Sharpay asked after the flurry of people finally started to settle.

"Looking for all of you!" Ryan replied.

"And you," Jack growled forcefully as he pounded forward and grabbed hold of Zeke's shirt. Zeke let out a frightened gurgling noise as Sharpay quickly shrieked for him to stop.

"Why?" Ryan asked dumbfounded. "He's been pushing all the terrorists toward you."

"I know. But in all the time he's been pushing them toward me, how often have they gotten me?" she asked with an air of defiance.

"Just that one time that ended up in a horrible car accident causing you to lose all your memory." Troy replied quietly from beside her.

Sharpay scowled. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that one."

At this seeming lack of a defense, Jack resumed his harsh hold on Zeke, about ready to interrogate him, much like the other terrorist.

"Wait!" Sharpay yelled again. "Why hurt him when we still need him? Isn't he the only one that still has contact with Vanessa?"

Zeke nodded vigorously. Jack scrutinized Sharpay for a second before releasing his grip. "Fine. What did you have in mind?"

* * *

"I asked for a raspberry _white_ mocha, not a raspberry mocha and where in God's name is my brownie?!" Vanessa screamed to the nervous directors assistant.

"Actually, the director doesn't want you eating any more of-"

"I don't give a rats ass what he thinks! I'm not coming on set until I get my brownie!" she screamed tossing the latté to the side, causing it to splatter in a large puddle on the blacktop surface. She then turned and slammed the door to her oversized trailer in the assistants face.

Throwing herself onto her couch, Vanessa let out an agonized groan at the sound of her phone ringing.

"WHAT?" she screamed into the receiver.

"Boss? It's Luke. I think we have a problem," he said hesitantly on the other end.

"What more could have possibly gone wrong?"

"Well, among other things, I believe we've been tailing the wrong girl."

Vanessa let out an angered scream. Hanging up, she immediately started to pack some clothes. '_If you want something done right…' _she thought in annoyed frustration. She picked up her phone and called the airport. A one-way flight to the states was needed.

**

* * *

**

Well, tell me what you think. We're almost done! Pretty exciting. But, please leave a review. I love to hear what you think.


	22. The Best Laid Plans

**Disclaimer: Nope…Still.**

* * *

The Best Laid Plans

Ring.Ring.

Ring. Ring.

"What is it?" Vanessa barked into the phone, the ring having woken her from the first sleep she'd been able to get in a few days. Travel was not good for her REM cycle.

"**Boss**? It's me, Zeke." Vanessa rolled her eyes at this boy's audacity but didn't say a word on the subject.

"Um, ok," Zeke said, sounding nervous for the first time after not getting a response. "I just wanted to fill you in, we've had a bit of a melt down."

"So I've heard," Vanessa said coldly into the phone.

"Well, it turns out that Ashley has been in hiding this whole time. She'd sent out a double to lure us away from her."

"And you're calling to tell me where the real Ashley is so that I can go shoot her."

Zeke gulped. "I'm sorry, what? You're here? In the U.S.?" his voice squeaked involuntarily.

"That's right, now where is she? I know you know."

Zeke let out a dramatic breath and said, his voice shaking ever so slightly, "She's in the tallest tower of the Cinderella Castle in Disney Land. I was headed over to California, I take it you're going to be meeting me there?"

"Tomorrow night," Vanessa snapped. "Nine o'clock, in the tunnel." Then she hung up the phone, cackling to herself.

* * *

"So?" Sharpay asked as soon as Zeke hung up the phone. They were still in Ashley's room in the tallest tower and every eye was currently staring intently at Zeke's sweating forehead.

"She'll be there," he said quietly, collapsing into the overstuffed, pink sofa.

"Excellent," Jack barked, jumping up at that same moment. "Get up!" he growled in Zeke's direction.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Gabriella asked, the whine in her voice more pronounced with her fear.

"We're going to the Cinderella Castle in Disney Land. We just got the evidence we've been looking for in that phone call," Jack explained quickly. He was anxious to get going.

"Evidence?" Ashley asked curiously.

"She just admitted her intent to kill you. And we just so happened to record it," Jack replied with a smug smile.

"Once Vanessa show's up," Zeke explained further, seeing Gabriella's still confused expression. "We'll be able to apprehend and convict her guilty ass."

"Oh," was all she responded with.

"And all of you should go back to Albuquerque. Except for you, of course, Ashley. You stay here." Jack commanded with the authority that nobody believed he actually had.

"Absolutely not!" Sharpay immediately protested. "I'm not leaving Ashley until we know this whole thing is over."

"And I'm not leaving Sharpay!" Troy added.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Fine. Then you three stay here. Gabriella, Ryan–"

"We're going!" Gabriella interrupted him, jumping up from her seat near the window and sprinting to the door.

"Um, right. It looks like I'm going," Ryan mumbled, getting up to follow Gabriella. Before he got to the door, he paused. Then, turning around swiftly, he pulled Sharpay into a bear hug. "You be careful," he murmured into her hair.

Sharpay laughed softly. "Don't worry about me, Ryan. I'm not going anywhere."

With that, Ryan turned and walked right out of the room, not daring to look back.

* * *

Vanessa unhooked her phone from her computer and watched as the screen slowly loaded the information that it had uncovered. She'd connected her phone to a tracking device, just to see where Zeke was when he'd called her. There was something about his behavior through this whole ordeal that didn't seem to fit. His attitude just wasn't the same as the other terrorists and in this line of business that usually meant he was going to be trouble.

The screen finally loaded the information and Vanessa appraised it with interest. So he'd been in Florida, had he? Orlando, to be more specific. And what does Orlando have, that Los Angeles has too? A Cinderella Castle.

Vanessa chuckled evilly to herself as she picked up her phone once more. Florida it is.

* * *

Sharpay sighed softly to herself. She, Troy and Ashley had been stuck in that room for over twenty four hours now. They'd run out of things to talk about after twelve.

"So, Ashley," Troy said loudly, startling the other two out of their reveries. "Who's your favorite musical group?"

"Billy Joel," she replied breezily, no thought necessary. "You?"

"Currently? The Flobots. But always Death Cab," he replied conversationally. They both turned and looked at Sharpay.

"What, we're playing twenty questions now?" she groaned irritably.

"Do you have a better idea?" Troy quipped back.

Sharpay glowered at him, arms crossed and nose scrunched. Finally, after a short stair down she opened her mouth and said "Blondie."

Troy stared at her for a beat with a confused expression when it at last dawned on him what she was saying. "Seriously?" he asked in surprise. "I would have thought you'd say the cast of Grease or something."

"Naw," Sharpay got up and joined Troy on the couch, swinging her legs across his lap. "Not since the accident, at least." Troy nodded.

"My turn," Ashley said from her seat by the window. "Favorite TV show."

"Definitely _Access Hollywood_," Sharpay instantly answered.

Ashley scrunched her nose in distaste. "Really?"

Sharpay shrugged. "I always try to imagine what they'll say about me once I'm a famous actress."

"Mine would be any basketball game."

"That's not a TV show, Troy!" Sharpay objected.

"It's on TV. And it is most definitely a show."

"It counts. I guess mine would have to be _Friends_."

"All right, uuummmm, favorite color?"

And that was how they whiled away the next three hours.

* * *

"Shhh," Jack put a finger to his lips as he shushed Zeke rather audibly.

Zeke nodded and simulated tip-toeing. As he took his second step with mock caution, his foot caught on the crack of a slightly raised cement chunk. Stumbling, Zeke dropped his back pack and swore loudly before catching himself and steadying his balance.

Jack just stared at him disappointed. "Seriously?"

The two walked around Disney Land's Cinderella Castle, making sure that they knew every inch of the area before Jack went to his position behind a security door.

Zeke looked at his watch. Ten to nine. It was almost show time. Nervously, he took out a piece of gum and unwrapped it with shaking fingers. He may not be able to get rid of any tremble in his voice but he certainly can distract from it.

* * *

"Favorite…TV show?"

"Ugh, we already did that one. This is boring, I can't play it anymore," Sharpay groaned stubbornly, trying to stifle a yawn. She and Troy had settled into a comfortable laying position, Troy's arms wrapped protectively around Sharpay's to warm her as she cuddled further into his chest.

Ashley was still positioned near the window, but she could no longer watch the commotion down below as darkness had fallen and only her own reflection could be seen.

"I'm thirsty," Sharpay whined, forgetting momentarily where she was stuck.

"I am too, actually," Troy said, sitting up slowly, easily placing Sharpay back on the couch. "How about I go get us all some slushies. That ought to wake us up a bit, too." Mostly he just wanted to get out of that stuffy room. The girls nodded dully; he didn't waste another second to escape. Even if it would be for just a few minutes.

After he had gone, Ashley chuckled softly. "You two are so funny."

Sharpay turned her head and slowly opened her tired eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Just the way you two bicker, sometimes," Ashley explained. She looked away as she said this, almost as though she were remembering a moment in her own past. "You just hold nothing back from each other, you know?"

Sharpay thought about it for a moment then snorted with laughter.

"What?"

Sharpay just shook her head. "I guess we just have nothing left to hide from each other."

Ashley smiled and the two fell back into their own thoughts. Suddenly the door burst open and a dark figure jumped through, wildly swinging her arms about.

"Get Up!" she yelled angrily. Startled, Ashley and Sharpay hardly had time to comprehend their surroundings before they found themselves tied to two chairs, their arms duct taped behind their backs and their mouths duct taped closed.

"Oh, Ashley," Vanessa said after she'd finished constraining the two girls, the condescension dripped thickly from her squeaky, baby voice. "Ashley, Ashley, Ashley. I am surprised at you, putting an innocent girl so grossly in deaths way. If I didn't know better, I'd say you did have a little healthy ruthlessness in you."

"Mmmm mmmm mm mmm mm mmmm mmmm," was Ashleys response. Roughly translated, she said 'Get away from me you stupid whore'.

"Now, now Ashley, play nicely," Vanessa responded, chuckling lightly. She then turned and glanced around the pink room. "Nice digs," she said quietly, studying a picture on the wall of Mickey Mouse and his friends. She had a gun in her hand that she periodically swung around her finger recklessly. Every time, the girls would flinch in their seats, afraid it would discharge at just the wrong moment.

"Well, I suppose you two want to hear the whole story from the villains point of view, is that right? Isn't that how it always is before the victims die?" Vanessa paused a moment to study the girls' unresponsive faces. "Right. Well, Ashley, it's simple, really. I hired the terrorists, and Zeke by mistake apparently, to kill you so that I wouldn't have to do it. I figured it would just be so much easier to deny my involvement if I truly was uninvolved. But we all saw how that ended up so…lesson learned, I suppose. For me, that is. You two will be dead before you can make that mistake."

Vanessa smiled and sat down on the couch, lounging out her legs, all the while keeping the gun pointed in the other two's direction.

"Anyway, I'm sure you two already figured that part out. But why I'm going to kill you. Ashley, you just became too much of a threat. To my career, to my personal life. You know? I would make a CD; you'd make a better one. I would star in a movie; you'd star in a better one. I was voted pretty; you were voted prettier. One day I woke up and I thought to myself, 'it doesn't have to be like this'. My mother had always told me, when you encounter barriers, destroy them. Well, you're my barrier Ashley. And I'm going to destroy you." Vanessa said the last sentence very slowly and very menacingly as she leaned forward, causing the shadows on her face to darken, completely veiling her eyes.

"Mmmm mmm mmmm," Sharpay pleaded loudly, the terror slowly forming in the pit of her stomach.

"Don't be silly," Vanessa laughed, leaning back again. "If I let you go then you'll tell people what I did. I can't let that happen, now can I?"

Standing up, Vanessa sauntered closer to the girls, her grin turning more evil with each step. "Well girls, I've told my story and I'm starting to get bored. I think it's time we moved onto the next phase of our evening, don't you?"

Both girls shook their head's frantically as Vanessa raised the gun, took aim and started to squeeze.

* * *

Zeke paced the tunnel beneath the Castle one last time, but he already knew it was useless. Vanessa was not going to show. And that was not a good sign. Frustrated, he let out an angered growl.

"She isn't coming, is she?" Jack asked having just stepped out from his hiding place.

"No," Zeke replied sharply. "You know what that means?"

"She figured it out," Jack replied grimly.

* * *

Troy took the stairs two at a time. Something wasn't right, he could just feel it. A wave of horrible foreboding had washed over just as he was picking up the drinks from the street vendor. Not wanting to risk any more then he already had, he immediately dropped the drinks onto the ground – much to the dismay of the vendor – and sprinted the multiple stories back to the top of the Castle.

On the last flight, he rose as quietly as possible. He'd heard angry voices echoing from above and he just knew that it would not be beneficial to be caught. Once he reached the landing and peaked through the crack that the slightly ajar door left, he knew why.

"Don't be silly. If I let you go then you'll tell people what I did. And I can't let that happen, now can I?"

Troy prayed that the hinges wouldn't creak as he carefully pushed the door open just far enough for him to squeeze through. Thank God for answered prayers.

Pushing his luck, he asked that the floor boards wouldn't creak beneath his feet. He hadn't been paying attention earlier to whether that should even be a concern of his. Tip-toeing into the room, he kept one eye focused on Vanessa's wide, unappealing back as he stepped closer to the table that they'd had tea at earlier.

"Well girls, I've told my story and I'm starting to get bored. I think it's time we moved onto the next phase of our evening, don't you?" Vanessa raised the gun, took aim and –

Crash! Bam! Thud!

Vanessa fell heavily to the floor, but not before a gun shot went off.

"Oh my God!" Troy gasped. "Did she get either of you?" His eyes scanned their body's anxiously for any spilled blood. None that he could see. Then, dropping the part of the chair that had stayed in his hands after smashing it over Vanessa's head, Troy ran to Sharpay and ripped the tape off of her face.

"Yeaooowwww!" She screamed, though she smiled through the pain. "Troy! Thank God, you saved us!" She smiled happily.

Troy returned the smile but quickly looked to the floor, his cheeks blushing bright red. "Aw, it was nothing, really." He quickly reached behind her and yanked off the rest of the tape that was holding her to the chair. Sharpay jumped up and immediately threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest. Troy wrapped his arms around her body and squeezed tight, never wanting to let her go again. Leaning down, he kissed her head and savored the smell of Raspberries that her shampoo left on her hair.

"Mmmmmm mmm!"

Sharpay and Troy broke apart, reminded that they weren't the only ones in the room. "Sorry," Troy muttered as he went over to Ashley and released her from her taped prison.

Once the three were all released, they stood around Vanessa's unconscious body, staring down at her intently.

"So, what should we do with her?" Sharpay asked timidly.

"I have an idea," Ashley replied grimly.

* * *

"Just get on the God damned plane, Zeke!" Jack yelled frustrated.

Zeke hated flying. And this was his second flight in one day. He didn't think it was his fault that he hesitated getting on. Jack did.

Scrambling back into motion, Zeke ambled onto the plane and buckled himself in as tightly as he could. Just a few hours. No big deal. He did it once, he could do it again.

Jack watched him mutter reassurances to himself with provocation. What kind of secret agent was this guy if he didn't like dare devil type things? Before he could even contemplate the limitations of Zeke's work, his phone buzzed hyperactively inside his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw that it was from Sharpay. He decided to answer anyway.

"What?"

"Um, Vanessa came here."

"That's what we were afraid of."

"We knocked her unconscious with a chair. And now she's taped to that chair. We were hoping you could get back here? Soon?"

Jack laughed, the first real laugh since he'd started this mission. "Roger that," he said. "We're on our way."

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Woah! We're almost done! Just one more. I couldn't have timed my two stories better. So, I randomly wrote this chapter really fast which means one of two things: either a) I really knew what I wanted to say so it came out faster or b) it was really bad. I'm praying (and hoping I have the same luck Troy has) that it's a.

**Let me know.**

**Review!**


	23. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: Because this could have changed, right?**

Epilogue

Sharpay lounged in the chaise by her oversized backyard pool contentedly. She could faintly make out the deep base of Ryan's music, undoubtedly blaring deafeningly through his speakers in his bedroom. But from her position, and with her surroundings, the world seemed at peace. Turning her largely sunglassed face to the sky she took in a deep breath, savoring the tepid, fragrant breeze that lingered in her nose as she focused her senses on the warmth of the sun beating down on her chilled skin.

She felt calm. Relaxed. A sensation she hardly remembered, the foreboding having finally left along with Jack.

Still marveling in the immense warmth that surrounded her (not all of it created by the sun) she turned her head to the left to look passed her shoulder, at Troy lying in the chair next to her. His chest was rising and falling evenly with his dozing breaths. Damn, he's sexy when he sleeps. She smiled softly to herself, drinking in the image before her, hoping to imprint this moment into her memory forever.

It had been a week since that night in the tallest tower of Cinderella's Castle in Disney World. Just a week. And yet everything was different.

And exactly the same.

Sharpay's feelings for Troy were the same now as they had been before that night. And she knew his were for her, as well. Or, perhaps, they were more open with each other than before, their trust beyond what words could express. Well, beyond what _her_ words could express, certainly others would understand and be better equipped to explain. But for the moment Sharpay was content with simply living with this conviction and enjoying their time together. She'd learned all to well that situations can change at the drop of a hat.

Her return to school had been very much the same (though their were, thankfully, fewer tripping's). Ms. Darbus had been incensed about both her and Troy's sudden disappearance but her anger was easily forgotten once she witnessed a flawless run-through with her two leads. She stood in the middle of the empty auditorium clapping her hands dramatically and crooning "Bravo! Brava!"

Sharpay and Ryan were on better footing, as well. He finally seemed to have come to terms with the fact that her memory may never come back completely, but she needn't hide the fact. It wasn't a weakness. In fact, for Sharpay, it had turned out to be her greatest strength. It allowed her a new beginning, and from what she gathered, she had been anxious for that change. Maybe her reputation will not disappear entirely from her life, but her personality certainly had. Her ability to see people for who they are and not what they are or how much they have had returned and she quickly learned to capitalize on it.

Zeke didn't return to school as his presence was no longer required in Albuquerque. Mr. Matsui had been reluctant to inform their class that Zeke's father had been abruptly called in from the reserves and they had been shipped to Kazakhstan. But Sharpay knew the truth and it sounded admittedly less exciting. After a long discussion with Jack, Zeke had decided that free-agent counter terrorist work was not, in actuality, his dream. So he decided to go back to school and study the culinary arts. He may not have been the best agent for hire but he was never hungry.

Jack, on the other hand, was even more convinced than he had been before his mission that he had picked the correct field of work. After arresting Vanessa and turning her into the local authorities his energy was flowing free and his senses were back on high alert. Without taking a moment's rest he returned to Los Angeles and to the Counter Terrorist Unit to receive his next assignment. Sharpay couldn't be sure, but considering the number of indiscriminate explosions that have been occurring in Alaska lately, she'd guess he'd been sent North.

Now, Vanessa and Ashley are where the greatest disappointments have turned out to be. Ashley, being the considerate soul that she is, did not publicize Vanessa's murder attempts. In fact, she released a statement saying that she had been out of the Country working on a film, thus explaining her long absence, and she had not realized that so many rumors had been circulating as to her whereabouts. She apologized to her fans for allowing them to worry for the length of time that they had and she assured everybody that she wasn't going anywhere.

And Vanessa was last seen on the side of Imperial Highway in a bright orange jumpsuit and a so-called Grabber Jaw attempting to lessen any pending verdicts by emphasizing her philanthropic tendencies. But, for the time being, a frequent user of the highway, it should be noted, has claimed that the road side has "never looked so clean".

Sharpay momentarily broke out of her thoughts as Troy woke with a snort. She giggled softly, he opened his eyes and smile at her, not embarrassed in the least. Damn, he's sexy when he wakes up.

"Hey sexy," he said, his intense blue eyes seemingly reading her very thoughts.

"Hey," she replied softly, her smile still playing on her lips.

"What are you thinking about?"

Sharpay winked, "Nothing, really. Just enjoying the view."

And Gabriella. What can really be said about her? Well she and Ryan are almost officially dating. They seem to be playing this weird game where neither wants to be the first to admit their feelings. Sharpay is relatively certain it's for different reasons; Ryan out of embarrassed denial, Gabriella out of her own ridiculous obliviousness. Either way, their personal situation has remained vague. But Sharpay is proud to admit that, usually, after she's had her coffee and before her daily stresses start to weigh on her mind, if it's a good hair day and Margot remembered to press her designer outfit in that way she likes, she can almost, half the time pretend to enjoy Gabriella's company for nearly three minutes.

This is quite an improvement, don't you think?

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Well, there you have it. The gripping conclusion to this fascinating tale that I thought would never end. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it (most of the time). This is my first story that I've ever written and completed! Yay me!

**Now, you all know what's coming. Please leave me a review! Especially as this is your last chance. I would love to hear what you all thought. Thanks so much for reading! – and keep an eye out for more stories from me.**

**Peace out.**


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